| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| THE YOGA OF COMPLETENESS - SEEING THE LORD EVERYWHERE |
| Through bhakti effort becomes easy 6. I cannot cut up life into bits. I cannot separate karma, jnana and bhakti; nor are they separate. For example, look at the cooking in this jail. A few of us do the work of preparing food for the six or seven hundred people here. If some of these cooks do no know their job, they would spoil the food. The chapatis would be underdone or burnt black. But let us take it that they have good knowledge of the art of cooking. Even so, if there is no love, no bhakti, in their hearts, if they do not feel, "These chapatis are meant for my brothers, i.e. for Naraayana, they must be well cooked, this is the service of the Lord," if they do not feel this, they are unfit for the task in spite of all their knowledge of cooking. Cooking requires not only knowledge, but love too. Unless there is the rasa of bhakti in the heart, there can be no rasa, in the food. That is why a mother's cooking is particularly tasty. For who else would do this with so much love and care? And tapasya, self sacrificing austerity, is also necessary for it. How can this work be done without enduring heat and accepting hardship? From this we conclude that, for success in any action, love, knowledge and labor, all three are necessary. All the activities of life stand on these three. If one of the legs of a tripod is broken, it cannot stand; all three legs are needed. The very name conveys the structure. Such too is the condition of life. Jnana, bhakti, karma, knowledge, love and constant effort, are the three legs on which life stands. On these three pillars we should construct our Dvaraka, the city of nine gates. These legs together make up one thing. The image of the tripod fits exactly. Even if you logically distinguish between bhakti, jnana and karma, you cannot divide them in experience. The three together make up one great entity. |
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