| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| THE SELF AND THE NON-SELF |
| Just as cowdung cakes fall off the wall when they are dry, this clay plaster of our body disintegrates, leaving it as it was. What then is the use of adding to the body all this unbearable weight of clay? Why make the body so fat? The body is a tool, and we should certainly do all that is necessary to keep it fit. A machine should be made to work, it must be well used. But can one identify oneself with the machine? And should we not think in the same way of this machine, the body? 13. The truth is that the body is not an end, but a means. Once we are confirmed in this attitude, all this fussing over the body will cease. Life will present a different appearance to us. Then we would see no merit in decking the body. Indeed a piece of ordinary cloth will do to cover it. We want the cloth to be soft and smooth, dyed in beautiful colors, with good patterns and a border. For the sake of this, we make a number of people labor. What is all this for? Does not the Creator know His job? If the body needs all these patterns, would He not have spent on your body and mine the skill He has shown on the leopard's skin? Was it beyond His powers? He could have
fixed to our backs a magnificent tail like the peacock's. But the Lord has made man's skin
of a single color. The slightest spot on it spoils its beauty. Man is
beautiful as he is. It is not God's intention that it should be beautified
further. Is it not Creation extraordinarily beautiful? All that man has to do is to behold it with
his eyes and be content. But he has missed his way. They say that Germany has destroyed our colors.
My dear man, the color of your heart was already dead. It is only then that you developed a taste for these artificial dyes. As a result, you |
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