Vinobaji

Vinobaji (the –ji suffix is a mark of respect …think “sir”)

Vinoba Bhave was an intelligent, gently single-minded, and philosophical boy from an extremely spiritual family.  He chose a life of celibacy before most boys even know their own sexuality and during his teens instead of travelling to Bombay for his national examinations, he told his father that he and his friends were going “somewhere else” instead.  That “somewhere” was Varanasi where he hoped and failed to find a satisfactory depth of spiritual development.  Having questioned by letter some of the  inspiring speeches that Ghandi had been making, he was invited to meet Ghandi face to face and so he left Varanasi to seek him out at his Ashram in Gujarat.

Ghandiji said of Vinoba that where “most people take something from the Ashram, Vinoba gives something to it”.  This spirited young man pledged himself to Ghandi’s service and devoted himself to promoting societal change through non-violence.  Unlike Ghandi, his disciple was not a politician and after Ghandi’s assassination (1948) and Indian independence, Vinoba soon began a 15 year walking tour, (Bhoodan) during which he famously encouraged landowners India-wide to pledge one sixth of their land to their local poor.  He covered every state in India and 4,000,000 acres were pledged.  By the time his Bhoodan began Vinoba was in his fifties, he spoke several languages and was fantastically versed in the world’s religions; he had studied the Koran (in its native Arabic) and once even delighted Martin Luther King’s wife on a public stage with his knowledge of Negro Spirituals!  Vinoba was a modern-day saint, and was accompanied on his monumental voyage for the poor by brothers and sisters of all religions through all weathers surviving upon the charity of those they met and inspired along the way.

Some of the sisters on the walk decided that they wanted to lead spiritual lives in line with Vinoba’s and so Vinoba, who firmly believed that the natural love within women holds the key to a non-violent future for the world, founded the Brahmavidya Mandir Ashram as a live “experiment” into non-violent society and how it can work.

To have been sincerely asked by the community members, many of whom lived Vinobaji to “please treat the Ashram as your second home” and to return at least to visit “but preferably for at least a year” is a true honour.