| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| THE SELF AND THE NON-SELF |
| Is it not because of this quality in you, which is not found in animals that man is
considered nobler? That is why it is said that human birth is difficult to attain. But if we
destroy the foundation of man's greatness and nobility, how can the superstructure remain? If man too,
without shrinking, behaves like any other animal and lives on flesh, it
would be like cutting off from the tree the branch on which one sits.
11. Medical science is performing many miracles today. Into the body of a living animal they inject disease germs and watch its effects. The knowledge gained by giving all the pains to a living creature is used for the sake of the worthless human body. And all this goes on the name of "compassion to creatures." Producing disease germs in the animal's body we take out the serum for injecting into the human body. Many such terrible actions are being done. This body, for whose sake we do so much, is as brittle as glass and will be shattered to pieces any moment. There is no certainty how long it will last. Thought all these efforts are for safe-guarding the human body, what do we find in actual experience? As we go on trying to preserve the delicate human body, it goes on disintegrating. It is not as if we do not understand all this, and yet keep trying to fatten it and make much of it. 12. We never consider what kind of food will make the mind saattvik, make it bright and clear. What one should do, what aids one should seek to make the mind pure, the intellect clear, we never think. All that we think of is how to increase the weight of our body. |
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