| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
 |
| Discourses On Gita |
| THE SELF AND THE NON-SELF |
| A hungry man comes to your door when you have just sat down to eat. You give the food away to him. When,
late at night, what you did comes back to your mind, you hear the still small voice of the
Self saying, "You have done well." When the mother pats her child on
the back and says, "Well done, my child!" he has the feeling that he
has gained the world. Even so the approving voice of the Self within
fills pleasure and plants its feet firmly on the path of right conduct.
25. Then we come to the next stage. Through doing his duty, man tries to cleanse his mind and heart. But as he does this, a point is reached when he gets tired. Then the soul begins to pray, "Oh Lord! I have come to the end of my efforts. Give me more strength, more power. " Until a man realizes that he cannot achieve success by his own efforts, however hard, he cannot understand the secret of prayer. When he has put all his strength into his efforts and finds them inadequate, he should call on the Supreme with a sad and yearning heart, as Draupadi did. The stream of the Lord's compassion and succor flows ceaselessly. Whoever is thirsty can drink of it as of right; whoever has need, can seek fulfillment there. This is the relationship in the third stage. The Supreme now comes very close. He comes running now to help and does not merely offer words of praise. . 26. A first, the Lord stood at a distance. As the teacher, giving his pupil a question to answer, stands aside and watches, so too, as long as the soul adheres to the life of pleasure, the Supreme stands apart and says, "All right, play your pranks." |
|
|
