"A country should be defended not by arms, but by ethical behavior." -- Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave,( ?????? ???? ), born Vinayak Narahari Bhave (September 11, 1895 - November 15 1982) often called Acharya (In Sanskrit means teacher), was an Indian advocate of Nonviolence and human rights. He is best known for Bhoodan Andolan. He is considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi. The King of Kindness (Vinoba Bhave, Bhoodan, Gramdan, Sarvodaya, Gandhi Movement)
"All revolutions are spiritual at the source. All my activities have the sole purpose of achieving a union of hearts.""Do not allow yourself to imagine that revolutionary thinking can be propagated by governmental power.""Human life is full of the play of samskaras - tendencies developed by repeated actions.""If a man achieves victory over this body, who in the world can exercise power over him? He who rules himself rules over the whole world.""If we could only snap the fetters of the body that bind the feet of the soul, we shall experience a great joy. Then we shall not be miserable because of the body's sufferings. We shall become free.""If we wish our nature to be free and joyous, we should bring our activities into same order.""In nonviolence you must go full steam ahead, if you want the good to come speedily you must go about it with vigor.""In the Bhagavad Gita, there is no long discussion, nothing elaborate. The main reason for this is that everything stated in the Gita is meant to be tested in the life of every man; it is intended to be verified in practice.""In this world of chance and change and mutability, the fulfillment of any resolve depends on the will of the Lord.""Innumerable actions are going on through us all the time. If we started counting them, we should never come to an end.""It is a curious phenomena that God has made the hearts of the poor, rich and those of the rich, poor.""It is only when our life proceeds within bounds and in an accepted, disciplined way, that the mind can be free.""Life does not mean mere karma or mere bhakti or mere jnana.""The main reason why we look constantly to the Gita is that, whenever we need help, we may get it from the Gita. And, indeed, we always do get it.""The natural movement of one's soul is upwards. But just as any object is dragged down when a heavy weight is tied to it, the burden of the body drags down the soul.""The river flows at its own sweet will, but the flood is bound in the two banks. If it were not thus bound, its freedom would be wasted.""Though the names karma yoga and sannyasa are different, the truth at the heart of both is the same.""We cannot even recollect the actions of our infancy, our childhood is like something written on a slate and rubbed off.""We cannot fight new wars with old weapons.""We have seen from experience that, if we are in the habit of walking regularly on the same road, we are able to think about other things while walking, without paying attention to our steps.""When a thing is true, there is no need to use any arguments to substantiate it."
He was born in Gagode, Maharashtra on September 11, 1895 into a pious family of the Chitpavan Brahmin clan. He was highly inspired after reading the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharat, Ramayan at a very early age. His father was a devout Hindu and his mother, who died in 1918, was a great influence on him. In his memoir, Bhave states that, "there is nothing to equal the part my mother played in shaping my mind". Specifically, his devotion and spirituality.
His two brothers, Balkoba Bhave and Shivaji Bhave, were also bachelors devoted to social work.
He was associated with Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian independence movement. In 1932 he was sent to jail by the British colonial government because of his fight against British rule. There he gave a series of talks on the Gita, in his native language Marathi, to his fellow prisoners.
These highly inspiring talks were later published as the book "Talks on the Gita", and it has been translated to many languages both in India and elsewhere. Vinoba felt that the source of these talks was something above and he believed that its influence will endure even if his other works were forgotten.
In 1940 he was chosen by Gandhi to be the first Individual Satyagrahi (an Individual standing up for Truth instead of a collective action) against the British rule. It is said that Gandhi envied and respected Bhave's celibacy, a vow he made in his adolescence, in fitting with his belief in the Brahmacharya principle. Bhave also participated in the Quit India Movement.
Religious and social work
Vinoba's religious outlook was very broad and it synthesized the truths of many religions. This can be seen in one of his hymns "Om Tat" which contains symbols of many religions.
Vinoba observed the life of the average Indian living in a village and tried to find solutions for the problems he faced with a firm spiritual foundation. This formed the core of his Sarvodaya (Awakening of all potentials) movement. Another example of this is the Bhoodan (land gift) movement. He walked all across India asking people with land to consider him as one of their sons and so give him a one seventh of their land which he then distributed to landless poor. Non-violence and compassion being a hallmark of his philosophy, he also campaigned against the slaughtering of cows.
Literary career
Vinoba Bhave was a scholar, thinker, writer who produced numerous books, translator who made Sanskrit texts accessible to the common man, orator, linguist who had an excellent command of several languages (Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit, Kannada), and a social reformer. He wrote brief introductions to, and criticisms of, several religious and philosophical works like the Bhagavad Gita, works of Adi Shankaracharya, the Bible and Quran. His criticism of Dnyaneshwar's poetry as also the output by other Marathi saints is quite brilliant and a testimony to the breadth of his intellect.A university named after him, Vinoba Bhave University, is still there in the state of Jharkhand spreading knowledge even after his death.
Vinoba spent the later part of his life at his ashram in Paunar, Maharashtra. He controversially backed the Indian Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, calling it Anushasana Parva (Time for Discipline).
He fell ill in November 1982 and decided to end his life. He died on November 15, 1982 after refusing food and medicine for a few days. Some Indians have identified this as sallekhana. It is the Jain religious ritual of voluntary death by fasting.
V. S. Naipaul has given scathing criticism of Bhave in his collection of essays citing his lack of connection with rationality and excessive imitation of Gandhi. Even some of his admirers find fault with the extent of his devotion to Gandhiji. Much more controversial was his support, ranging from covert to open, to Congress Party's Govt under Indira Gandhi which was fast becoming unpopular.
In 1958 Vinoba was the first recipient of the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1983.
"All revolutions are spiritual at the source. All my activities have the sole purpose of achieving a union of hearts."
"Peace is something mental and spiritual. If there be peace in our (personal) life, it will affect the whole world"
"Jai Jagat! — Victory to the world!"
"It is a curious phenomena that God has made the hearts of the poor rich, and those of the rich poor."
"What we should aim at is the creation of people power, which is opposed to the power of violence and is different from the coercive power of state."
"A country should be defended not by arms, but by ethical behavior."
"We cannot fight new wars with old weapons."
"When a thing is true, there is no need to use any arguments to substantiate it."
"There is no need for me to protest against the government’s faults, it is against its good deeds that my protests are needed."
"Do not allow yourself to imagine that revolutionary thinking can be propagated by governmental power."
"I beg you not to adopt any "go slow" methods of nonviolence. In nonviolence you must go full steam ahead, if you want the good to come speedily you must go about it with vigor. A merely soft, spineless ineffective kind of nonviolence will actually encourage the growth of the status quo and all the forces of a violent system which we deplore."
Vinoba Bhave: The Man and His Mission, by P. D. Tandon. Published by Vora, 1954.
India's Walking Saint: The Story of Vinoba Bhave, by Hallam Tennyson. Published by Doubleday, 1955.
Acharya Vinoba Bhave, by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India, Published by Publications Division, Government of India, 1955.
India's Social Miracle: The Story of Acharya Vinoba Bhave and His Movement for Social Justice and Cooperation, Along with a Key to America's Future and the Way for Harmony Between Man, Nature, and God, by Daniel P. Hoffman. Published by Naturegraph Co., 1961.
Sarvodaya Ideology & Acharya Vinoba Bhave, by V. Narayan Karan Reddy. Published by Andhra Pradesh Sarvodaya Mandal, 1963.
Vinoba Bhave on self-rule & representative democracy, by Michael W. Sonnleitner. Published by Promilla & Co., 1988. ISBN 818500210X.
Struggle for Independence : Vinoba Bhave, by Shiri Ram Bakshi. Published by Anmol Publications, 1989.
Philosophy of Vinoba Bhave: A New Perspective in Gandhian Thought, by Geeta S. Mehta. Published by Himalaya Pub. House, 1995. ISBN 817493054X.
Vinoba Bhave - Vyakti Ani Vichar (a book in Marathi) by Dr Anant D. Adawadkar, Published by Jayashri Prakashan, Nagpur.
