Singled Out by Gandhi

Te Ao Hou, September 1955, Page 39

Singled Out by Gandhi While in Baroda, walking and reading were his main occupations. In 1916 Vinoba joined Gandhi and for a year not only steeped himself in Sanskrit studies but undertook such menial tasks as scavenging and cooking. At Gandhi's behest he established an ash ram at Sew agram which later became the Mahatma's headquarters. Vinoba's fame rests on his personal holiness—a dedicated ascetic life since the age of 10. vegetarianism (not even salt or spices), total celibacy and more than landlord of the area, rose and offered a hundred acres. The untouchables conferred and came to a decision: eighty acres, two for each family, were all they needed. Twenty were returned to the donor. It was this double act of generosity that inspired the Land Gifts Mission. This unpremeditated, almost accidental—some forty years of self-discipline. In 1940, Gandhi chose Vinoba Bhave who “had never been in the limelight or on the political platform”—from among all others in the country—to be the only one to offer civil disobedience. Vinoba spent three years in jail. Today this bespectacled frail ascetic—he weighs only 90 pounds dressed in homespun cloth—walks, sunshine or rain, his 10 or 15 miles a day. He walks as other sages before him to deliver his message. For the character of a saint is like cotton fibre—both undergo suffering to contribute to the welfare of others. And how else could a man, suffering from duodenal ulcer, subsisting on yoghourt, walk each day, year in year out, from village to village, unless he be a saint, divinely inspired? Vinoba started his movement at Gaya, Bihar, whence twenty-five centuries ago the Buddha preached the doctrine of non-violence and love. He has walked for four years—nearly 13,000 miles—acquiring four million acres of land, gifts from over 300,000 people. And his target by 1957 is 50 millions—one-sixth of India's arable land. “This Bhoodan Yajna”, says Vinoba, “is an application of non-violence, an experiment in the transformation of life itself. I am only an experiment in the hands of Him, who is the Lord of all ages, even like those who give and those who receive his gifts. It is the phenomenon inspired by God. For how otherwise can people who fight even for a foot of land be inspired to give away freely hundreds of acres?” Vinoba is revolutionary; he is trying to fulfill a historical necessity. He seeks the true emancipation of the masses. His Bhoodan Yajna or Land Gifts Mission is a first step towards the

realization of economic independence—Sarvodaya—or the good of all. Vinoba has gathered round him a band of devoted and disciplined followers, pledged to his creed of land gifts. Chief among them is India's Socialist leader, Jayaprakash Narayan, who has made a gift of his life (Javandan) to the cause. Vinoba's appeal is essentially religious. He looks upon all men as children of God and loves them all in equal measure. And India always responds to a man of renunciation. His travels are marked by continuous festival. Through the villages, as he walks, the poorest huts are festooned with palms and mango leaves—symbol of good fortune. He accepts gifts from the rich or the poor because each man has something to give and must offer all he can. Vinoba puts his trust in the inevitable conversion of the heart. “I am a stream in which rivers come with all types of water—dirty, hard, soft or fine. I accept them with good grace.” Vinoba believes that India needs a wide distribution of small machines and a more decentralized system of production, based on the village, not on the city. Planning must start with putting people, not machines, to work. He preaches the Gospel of self-help. “If you don't help your-selves, God won't help you. He can't shower food and clothing. His mercy can be manifested in the form of rain on the fields. It is you who have to sow seed for food and cotton for cloth. If you go on snoozing after sunrise, how can you enjoy the warmth of the rising sun?” Vinoba Bhave is discussing his land gift mission with Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India. (Government of India Photograph.)