Page 35 - Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 21st Century ISBN

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3. Registering others virtues for activists.
4. Building up bridges of confidence with hope, faith and open acceptance.

5. Imparting sympathetic care, concern, education for winning hearts.

Samya-Yoga and its Implications
In a culture of non-violence, co-existence and peace can be developed only when the leader

of that social service is content, at peace with himself, and selfless beyond ordinary human imagination.
The 16th, 17th and 18th chapters of the Bhagavad Geeta deal with the techniques of such social

service. Vinoba in his lectures on the Geeta puts it in these words. The individual who is vested with
this perfection has to merge in the soil and become the manure that will nourish and enlighten all. If you

are a perfect Brahmachari, your work should look hundred times more wistful than that of others. You
should work much more even if you get less to consume. Your service to the society should be greater.

Let your Brahmacharya be reflected in your actions. Let its fragrance, like Sandalwood spread far
and wide. This is what should be true for the perfectly spiritual work. 5

Action performed with pure heart is free from any attachment. It is a sheer outpouring of
LOVE that acts as a balm on others wounds. It is totally devoid of any self-interest. Purity of purpose

totally erases the action. Action is reduced to ashes immediately, it is executed. It does not tire the least.
Saints perform hundreds of actions but not a ripple of commotion arises in the still ocean of their mind.

The mind remains calm, peaceful and radiant. 6
This can never be understood unless you observe the lives of saints from close quarters. So

stop reading books and listening to others and surrender yourself to the living saints. Your doubts will
get dissolved by the silent sermons there. You would know how to remain perfectly serene even while

constantly performing acts of service. In this state there is immense power to inspire others to act in the
right direction. It is like compressed steam, doing enormous work effortlessly. 7

Thr Yoga of Social Service

As said earlier, true social service begins after self-realization. The 16th, 17th and 18th chapters
of the Bhagavad Geeta cover an extremely wide vista. It calls for the instant necessity that in any

society every new generation of new born have to be infused with the culture of nonviolence, this we all
have unknowingly inherited from the perfectly wise men hither to. We are born with the seeds of this

social ethos. It is in every drop of the milk we have sucked from our mothers. It flows in our veins and
it is part of our unconscious being. It is only because highest souls have ceaselessly engaged themselves

after perfecting the society that the society has been sustained. That is why the saying goes that Santo

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