| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
 |
| Discourses On Gita |
| A SUPPLEMENT - THE CONFLICT BETWEEN DIVINE AND DEMONIC TENDENCIES |
17.
Everybody imagines:
"I am the noblest born; my wealth is great.Who am I? I belong to the line of the Bharadvaja. I can trace without a break my lineage from the great rishi. People in the West feel the same way. They say. "Noble Norman blood runs through my veins." Don't we in our country trace a guru-shishya line? It begins with Shiva, the adiguru, the first teacher. And then, Brahman or somebody else; then Narada and Vyasa; then some other rishi; then in between ten or fifteen other names; and after them, my guru and then, finally myself. Through this pedigree we try to prove our own greatness and that of our culture. My dear fellow, if indeed your culture is great, let your conduct reveal it. Let its splendor pervade your life. But this doesn't happen. The desire to spread throughout the world the culture that we do not practice in our own life, in our own home - this way of thinking is asurik. 18. "My culture is the noblest," we say. It is just like this to think, "I am the only person fit to hold all the wealth of the world. I want all the world's wealth, and I will make it mine." And why should I make it mine? To divide it equally among all. In order to do this, I first bury myself in this wealth. Akbar too said in the same way, "Why don't these Rajputs join my empire? If there is one big empire, peace would be established." Akbar sincerely believed this. The asuras of our day too think that they should collect all the wealth of the world. What for? To distribute it again to everybody. |
|
|
