|
Contents
|
Page No.
|
Preface
|
|
Preface
|
vii
|
"These people have no life-story to tell. What then are you
going to write about? You will just refer to some well known events. Nobody,
however, knows their real life-their inner life."
I planned to pen Vinoba's biography and a Savant confronted me: "why do
you want to write about something you don't know?"
|
|
Childhood
|
1
|
durlabham bharate janma, manusyam tatra duralabham
"To be born in Bharata is a blessing difficult to obtain and to be born
a human being there, is a still more difficult blessing.' In other words, to
be born in Bharat even as an insect is a blessing, Although all sing the
praises of their motherland, probably no other language in the world has such
an unusual saying as this.
|
|
Now In Quest of Brahma
(athato Brahma Jijnasa)
|
12
|
Vinayak reached Kashi repeating to him his resolve to go in
quest of Brahma. He stayed at Durgaghat and started studying Sanskrit. His
daily routine consisted of taking the morning meal in Sindhe's philanthropic
cookhouse, reading Geeta ignoring the noises outside until food was served
and eating only after completing the reading of all the eighteen cantos.
|
|
Keep Moving
(caraiveti, caraiveti)
|
33
|
Kalih sayano bhavati, sanjihanastu Dwaparah I
Uttisthan Treta bhavati, krtam sampadyate caran II
caraiveti, caraiveti
The Vedas enjoin all to be on the move. That is because 'He who sleeps lives
in the 'Kali Yuga', he who remains seated lives in the 'Dwapar Yuga', he who
stands lives in the 'Treta Yuga' and he who moves lives in the 'Satya Yuga'.
|
|
All Land Belongs to the Lord
|
50
|
Vinoba took the road consecrated by Buddha's and Mahavir's feet.
It was the road to Videha, the land of Rajarshi Janak, the ascetic king,
living in a palace. It was the road to Magadh. It was the land of Samrat
Ashok who, bidding farewell to arms, conquered the world by the force of
love.
|
|
Where The World Becomes A Nest
(yatra visvam bhavati eka nidam)
|
69
|
Valmiki has described Lord Ramachandra as solemn like an ocean
and great like the Himalayas, the king of mountains. Vinoba has compared this
vast country stretching from the ocean to the Himalayas, to a rainbow. A
rainbow has seven colours but they mingle with one another in such a way that
their boundaries cannot be demarcated.
|
|
Days of Politics Over
|
84
|
Vinoba's great pilgrimage of India continued and he continued to
experience the feeling that the whole world was his own country. Wherever he
went, God kept him company and the people thought that they had met their
intimate friend of many incarnations. They gave donations with infinite hands
and also got something in return.
|
|
Twelve Years Thirteen Months
|
98
|
There is a story in the Vedas that sage Vishwamitra went to the
confluence of 'Vipat and Shatadru' and as the river was in spate, he prayed.
The Vedic culture of the five rivers flowered in Punjab-Jhelum (Vitasta),
Chinab (Chandrabhaga), Ravi, Bias (Vipat) and Shatadru (Sutlaj). This country
got the name 'Sindhustan (Hindustan) from 'Daria Sindh' (the Sindhu river).
|
|
Vinoba and His Contemporaries
|
133
|
Vinoba, who left his home in quest of Brahma, reached the
Brahmavidya Mandir of Pavnar in 1964. It was his first visit to the ashram
founded five years earlier for collective yogic pursuit by virgins. He had
then completed a pilgrimage on foot covering about eighty thousand kilometres
equal to two circumambulations on the Earth.
|
|
Back to Panvar Ashram
|
145
|
On 7 June 1966, Vinoba announced his Sookshma Karmayogab at the
Ranipatra Ashram in Purnea district of Bihar. It was on this day fifty years
ago that he had met Gandhiji. Fifty years since then was a period of
karmayoga practised in obedience to Gandhiji and in accordance with his
philosophy of life.
|
|
Death Festival
|
160
|
May this life merge in that living spirit and may the body then
go to ashes. Taking the Almighty's name, Oh being of firm resolves, remember
the resolves made for Him. Oh my being, remember, remember the resolves made
for Him, forsaking the resolves made for my own self.'
When immersing Gandhiji ashes Vinoba himself sang this touching prose
composed by him from Ishavasya Upanished.
|
|
Vinoba's Legacy
|
168
|
At Jagannathpuri, everyone watched the play of rising waves at
the seashore. When a few waves camp up, Vinoba said, "See, that's
Nirmala there, and that one is Kusum." Then followed a slightly higher
wave and he said, "And see there's Vinoba." After a while a
mountainous wave arose and he said at once, "See, here comes Mahatma
Gandhi."
|