| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| CONCLUSION - THE FULFILLMENT OF FRUIT - THE GRACE OF THE LORD |
| 9.
Once there was a man who, feeling that there was something
inauspicious about his house, left it and went and settled in
another village. That in turn seemed dirty to him, and he went away
to the forest. There, as he sat under a mango tree, a bird's
droppings fell on his head. He said, "This forest too is
unfriendly", and went and stood in a river. In the river, the
sight of the big fish eating up the small fish filled him with
disgust.
The whole of creation," he concluded, "is unkind". "There is no way out except through death." So he came out of the water and kindled a fire. Then a gentleman who was passing by said, "My brother, why are you preparing to die?" He replied, "Because the whole world is inauspicious." Then man said, "If this unclean body of your, this mass of flesh, begins to burn, how it would stink! I live close by. Where could I go? When a single hair burns, it smells so awful! And how, all this flesh of yours will burn! Just think a little of the stench you will spread." Then the man was bewildered and exclaimed, "If one can neither live in this world nor die in it, what is one to do?" 10. That is to say, if we go about condemning everything as bad and inauspicious, and rejecting it, we simply cannot carry on. If you try to avoid small actions, other big actions will come and sit on your head. It is the nature of action that we do not get rid of it by giving up its external form. |
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