MAHILA ASHRAM

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28252, 13 April 1957, Page 3

MAHILA ASHRAM

Vinoba And His Disciples

[Reviewed by R.C.L.] Gandhi to Vinoba: The New PR. Lanza Del Vesto ' bX n!?«? d ! rom the French y Philip Leon. Rider and Company. 231 pp.

A little over 20 years ago the author of this book— then in his mid-thirties— visited Gandhi. On his return to Europe he founded a Gandhian order in France best described as a fraternal community of spinners, weavers, gardeners, carpenters, and builders who undergo a spiritual training and are bound by vows. Few people could have been more fitted than the author to tell the story of Vinoba.. which he does, not in any sensation-mongering way, but rather in a spirit of veneration for this man upon whom has fallen the mantle of Gandhi’s saintliness and whose life-like Gandhi’s in nis time—is wedded to poverty and good works and to the preaching and practice of non-violence. Vinoba was a disciple of Gandhi’s, and a member of his ashram. (Ashram is defined in the glossary at the end of this book as a community of master and disciples leading a life under rule.) One day, as this book relates, a very rich man named Jamnalal Bajaj visited Gandhi in his ashram and said to him, “Choose the one amongst you who is the most mature and the best trained the master who carries the greatest weight, give him full founder’s powers, and I’ll provide him with as much money and land as he wants. Everything I have will be put at his disposal just as I myself am at yours.” Whereupon Gandhi, overwhelmed as he was by such a generous offer, pointed to a‘ slender boy with a young beard and said, “He is the apple of my eye. Take him, my friend. I give him to you.” The boy thus singled out was Vinoba. From that time forward he regarded himself as commissioned by Gandhi, and he lost no time in setting up an ashram in which he was determined to have about him only such men as were prepared to keep the vows which he himself had taken—vows which included those of non-violence, absolute honesty, chastity, poverty, manual work, temperance, fearlessness and respect for every religion. It was at Mahila that Vinoba, with his band of disciples, set up this ashram.

The work attempted by the brotherhood is briefly described , in the book under review whose . author recently visited India to pay homage to Vinoba. The brothers of the Mahila ashram took him to see their fields of cotton, rice, sugar cane and corn. Their hospital also he visited—not a large one according to his description, for it employs four doctors and a surgeon, while the nurses and dispensers—he states —are recruited from amongst the village children, “preferably those of former pariahs.” Another part of the work of this brotherhood is centred in its school which is described uy the author as having no classroom with benches but instead of this, fields and workshops where the children spend the morning practising “their powers, skill, inventive genius, attention and taste.” In the afternoon they sit round the master under a tree or, if it rains, under a roof. They have' also small laboratories and a library. Their teaching says the author—consists as little as possible of passive impression, and as much as possible of expression. The second part of this book is entitled “On the March with Vinoba: the author’s journal.” It describes a march of 83 days’ duration in which the author accompanied Vinoba and his small band of disciples on a tour of the United Provinces and Bihar, the main purpose of the tour being to enlisl support for Vinoba’s Land Gifts Mission, or Bhoodan Yagna, as it is called—a movement which tries to persuade landlords of India to part with one sixth of their land for redistribution among the landless poor. The generous support Vinoba met with, and the ways he went about enlisting it, are described in this second part of the book (By August. 1954, according to one source, the number of acres received was 3,466,462 and the number distributed 91,325.)

The third and final section of the book is a short one containing the texts and sayings of Vinoba. Viewed for his saintliness, he is an impressive figure. In September, 1951, Nehru invited him to come to Delhi to discuss the fiveyear plan which the Indian Government was preparing. Vinoba was offered an aeroplane to fetch him but preferred to walk the 795 miles to Delhi. And, once there, he must have disappointed the Cabinet Ministers he saw. For he could find little but scepticism for their five-year plan. He is clearly a man in- retreat from the machine age and would rather see India return to her cottage industries. Be that as it may, as long as the contemplative life has its adherents and admirers men like Vinoba will continue to attract attention, and to all such this book should have considerable appeal.