Eternal India Encyclopedia

ETERNAL INDIA encyclopedia

WISDOM OF INDIA

achievements during the last six years have made them feel that revo-

If we have the conviction that we can create a new force through

lution is possible through peace. Those who believed that revolution is not possible through peaceful means [the Communists] have come to doubt if revolution is not possible through peace. If this is the result of the last six years of our activity, I think that this is much more than what we expected. From Bhave Communism and Sarvodaya

our idea we must make up our mind now. Though I did not expect [had no expectations of it], when the first offer of the land came at Pocham- palli, I began to think deeply that night over the significance of this incident. I thought there must be some divine indication in this With some faith in arithmetic as in God I began to calculate. I thought that 5 crores of acres got in this way would solve the land problem. Yet there was a doubt and fear in my mind as to how it would be possible to get 5 crores of acres even as the 100 acres which I got that day. When I began to think that it may not be possible, the picture of the Commu- nists came to my mind immediately. I had already known about all their violent activities there which I do not want to describe here. If I cannot get land by persuasion and love, I thought that I should have faith in the Communists and should follow them. If this Sarvodaya method is not possible it will have to be accepted that Communism alone can achieve the objective. Thus we came close to each other. Two points at the end of a circle are close to each other. The point where the circle ends is also the beginning of the circle. That which is the farthest is also the nearest. Though Communism permits violence we have to accept that it is the compassion that inspires it. This paradox is not a thing of [the] recent past. This has persisted since time immemorial. In the Geetha Pravachana I have mentioned that a great apostle of ahimsa had to bear arms and fought for twenty-one times. This contradiction was in Para- surama who is an incarnation of compassion. He had an axe in this hand. From that time always this contradiction has persisted in the world. We have to cut at this. We have to demonstrate the power of both love and peace. What is happening today? Those who chant peace thrice are for [the] status quo that nothing should be changed. They are afraid of any change. On the other side those who want to create revolution do not want the discipline of non-violence. They are not believers in violence nor believers in nonviolence. Only compassion moves them. But, that the compassionate follow violence is not a new contradiction of the present day. Nor should we be surprised at it. They say:" All lives are full of contradictions. There is not an individual in which there is no contradiction. Therefore come with us for a while with a contradiction suspending our non-violence and accept some violence. Violence is the most ancient and has come from the beginning of the time. But what we want to bring about ultimately is non-violence." They believe that violence has prevailed from the beginning and if peace could be stably established, it would be permanent and eternal.. But they feel that the eternal non-violence can be brought about by the use of some violence in the intermediate stage in which we are. They say: "You can have belief in non-violence [but] for the time being take your arms. Don't you feel for the poor and for their sake can't you do a little violence? if you don't do [so] you will be helpless for ever." This line of objection is worthy of consideration. The seekers of peace maintain [the] status quo\ and the revolution- aries become followers of violence. We are revolutionaries but we desire to act through peace. It behoves us to take the responsibility to demonstrate that every issue in this world can be solved through peace. I say to this large assembly of sevaks [constructive workers]. The

We consider stealing to be a crime, but connive at those who en-

courage this anti-social activity by amassing heaps of money. In a story in a [n] Upanishad aking says: "In my kingdom, there is neither a thief nor a miser." As we know it is the miser who gives rise to the thief. We

condemn the thieves to rot in the prison house, but let their creators

roam about in complete freedom. They even occupy seats of honour and responsibility in the society. Is this justice?.... The highly expensive administrative and other departments of the government are known as "services." And there are services galore: Civil Service, Medical Service, Educational Service. The officials of the Civil Service are paid four figure salaries [in rupees per month], while their masters, the poor of the country, whom they profess to serve have to live on a pittance of annas eight [one-half rupee] a day. It is a tragic paradox that those who earn lakhs [hundreds of thousands] are called servants, while those who produce for the nation are regarded as self-seekers working merely to feather their own nest.... the idea of land being the common property of all. All that we have, our land and property and intelligence- everything has to be an offering to the society.... Today he who earns money does also earn worry. Though he may make money, he loses something more precious than money, namely, the love of his fellow-men, the love of friends and neighbours. That is why even the moneyed are unhappy in the existing society. Both the rich and the poor are unhappy. The remedy is to change the order and place it on the secure basis of non-possession................. There is one thing which we will demonstrate through Samppat- tidan: that non-possession is a force for social good. We have long have to realise that it can also serve as a powerful means of social well- being. We have to prove that it is not only spiritually efficacious but it can help us in constructing [a] better and richer worldly life. The Gandhi Memorial Fund collected ten crore rupees. But not even [a] hundred crores will suffice for all we want to do. The need of the hour is to mobilise all our wealth in every form and press it into the service of the society. The Samppattidan way will turn every house into a bank on which the society can draw freely for all its wants. And because what is offered will be used locally, it will make a very easily workable plan. It will unite them with one another and release tremendous energy for constructive effort. We know that [the] practice [s] of equality and It is in order to put an end to this hypocrisy that I have put forward known that non-possession brings about individual purification. We

renunciation are good, but we have to look at them afresh and see them

as forces for promoting social welfare.

From Ramabhai Vinoba and His Mission

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