| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| ANOTHER SUPPLEMENT : PROGRAMME FOR THE SEEKER |
| God
bless the fellow who first thought up the difference between svaartha
and paramaartha. Should we not honor the mind which created
the illusion of a difference where none really exists? It is
wonderful how he set up this difference and taught it to the people.
This is like the Great Wall of China; like making a boundary of the
horizon and imagining that nothing exists beyond it. The reason for all this the absence
of a life lived as yajna.
That is why the difference between the individual and society has come about. But in reality it is impossible to separate the individual and society. If a curtain is hung in the middle of a room to divide it into two and it is blown about by the wind, sometimes one part appears larger and sometimes other. The size of the compartment is not fixed and permanent; it depends on the wind. The Gita tanscends these quarrels. These quarrels are imaginary. But the Gita says, "Keep within the bounds of inner purity. Then no conflict will arise between the good of the individual and that of the society. They will not obstruct each other." What the Gita specially does is to remove this difference, this conflict. Even if there is a single individual who obeys the discipline of the Gita, the whole country will prosper because of that single man. A nation consists of individuals in it. A country in which there are no such individuals, men of knowledge and disciplined conduct - how can we call it a nation? What is India? India is Rabindranath, India is Gandhi and a few other people like them. The outside world conceives of India in terms of few such individuals. |
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