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WISDOM OF INDIA
ETERNAL
INDIA
encyclopedia
If we have the conviction that we can create a new force through
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
achievements during the last six years have made them feel that revo-
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
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....
It is in order to put an end to this hypocrisy that I have put forward
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
known that non-possession brings about individual purification. We
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
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