It may be that the condition of the time did not seem propitious. And so they experimented individually, by themselves. But it is out of such experiments, conducted separately by individuals, that a science is born. Science arises from the combined experience of many.

12. After these individual experiments of saints, today we are conducting the fourth experiment. And that is, the whole of the society is joining together to oppose violence with the methods of ahimsa. Thus there have been four experiments so far. In each of them there have been and there are imperfections. That is inevitable in the course of progress. But it must be said that each method was perfect for its time. And ten thousand years later, people will see even in our non-violent struggle an element of violence.

Many more experiments in pure ahimsa will, of course, take place yet. Not only jnana, karma and bhakti, but all good qualities are evolving. There is only one perfection, and that is the Supreme. The purushottama-yoga of the Bhagavad Gita is complete, but in individual and social life these qualities are to develop fully.
Words too keep growing. The rishis are considered to be the seers of mantras, not the makers of them. For it is not as if the meaning they found in the mantras is the only true meaning. They had one vision of it. To us, coming after them, a more evolved meaning may appear. That we can see a little more than they is not due to any special merit in us, for we only build on the foundation they laid. I have been speaking so much on the growth of ahimsa alone. What is because, if we take the common essence of all these good qualities, we shall find that it is ahimsa. Moreover we are engaged today in a non-violent struggle. And so we considered the evolution of this principle.

[ Back ] [ Vinoba Bhave ] [ Up ] [ Next ]