| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| A SUPPLEMENT - THE CONFLICT BETWEEN DIVINE AND DEMONIC TENDENCIES |
| 7.
While, on one side, the army of good qualities is thus arrayed on
the other, the army of bad qualities also stands ready. There is no
need to say very much about bad qualities like vanity and ignorance.
Our whole life is founded on vanity. And of ignorance it can be said
that it has become a beautiful excuse. Which we trot out on every
occasion, almost as if ignorance were anything but a crime.
But the Lord says, "Ignorance is a sin." Socrates says just the opposite of this. In the course of his trail he says, "What you think is a sin is only ignorance, and how are you going to punish ignorance?" But the Lord says, "Ignorance too is sin." According to legal theory ignorance of law cannot establish innocence. Ignorance of God's law is also a great crime. Both the Lord and Socrates mean the same thing. The Lord tells us how to regard our own ignorance, and Socrates tells us how to regard the sins of others. Other people's sins we should forgive. But it is a sin to excuse even ignorance in oneself. We should not allow the least vestige of ignorance to remain in ourselves. |
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