| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| THE SELF AND THE NON-SELF |
| They would draw the child near
and fuss over it, saying, "Oh dear! How badly you have hurt yourself! How did it happen? Where did you fall? What a deep cut? Look, its bleeding!" Even if the child is not crying, they make him cry. What is one to say of this achievement? Children are constantly told not to jump about, or play, for fear of falling and getting hurt. They are given one-sided education which teaches them to think only of the body. 6. Even when we praise or blame the child, it is in reference to the body. We say, "How dirty you are!" How it hurts the child and how false is this identification of the child with the body! It is true that there is dirt and it is true that it needs to be washed off. But instead of casually washing off the dirt form the body, why attack the child? He cannot bear it. He becomes thoroughly miserable. While his heart, his innerself, is all purity and cleanliness, why this wrong attribution of dirt? In reality, the child is far from dirty. The child is the Lord Himself, absolute in his beauty, sweetness, holiness and love. In the child too He is manifest; but we call the child dirty! What is the connection between him and dirt? Since the child does not understand this at all he cannot bear this attack on him. He is deeply disturbed and such disturbance stands in the way of improvement. Hence we should explain things clearly to him and keep him clean and tidy. |
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