| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| A SUPPLEMENT - THE CONFLICT BETWEEN DIVINE AND DEMONIC TENDENCIES |
| 5.
Kurukshetra is both outside us and within us. When we observe it
carefully, it is the battle raging within that we see assuming shape
in the world without. He who seems to be my enemy is only the
passion in my heart taking on a shape and standing out there. Just
as my image, handsome or ugly, appears in the mirror, it is the bad
and good thoughts of our mind that appear without as our enemies and
friends.
As we see in dreams what we have seen
while awake, so we see in the world without what is in our hearts.
Between the battle within and the battle without, there is little
difference. To speak the truth, the real battle is only within
ourselves. 6. Within us there are good qualities on one side and bad ones on the other. And both armies are well arranged. An army needs a commander. The good qualities have their own commander named "abhaya," fearlessness. Fearlessness has been given the first place in this Chapter. This is not mere accident, but deliberate. Without truth good qualities have no value; but then, for truth, fearlessness is essential. In an atmosphere charged with fear, good qualities cannot grow; in fact they become themselves bad qualities, and good efforts and tendencies get weakened. Fearlessness is the commander of all good qualities; but the army has to be watched front and rear, on both sides. The direct attack will, of course, be in front, but one may also be stealthily set upon from behind. |
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