Page 46 - Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 21st Century ISBN

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Vinoba on Religion

Dr. Harsha Badkar

The attempt to understand Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s views on religion is one of the most important
exercise in today’s time. The world today is facing both inter-religious as well as intra-religious conflicts

to such an extent that it has become absolutely important to search for a viable solution to establish
peace and harmony in the society. Though it is true that almost all religions originated with this purpose,

somehow during course of time it has ceased to perform this desirable function and has rather become
an obstacle to peace and harmony by being one of the major sources of conflict and chaos in the

society.
It is with this aim in mind I would like to look into the views of Vinobaji on religion, which,

according to me is capable of resolving the conflicts by proposing a comprehensive and holistic view of
religion. Vinoba takes up a revolutionary stand so far as the institutionalized, narrow concept of religion

is concerned and at the same time he goes back to ancient tradition and extends a sound base for the
spiritual aspect of religion which according to him is capable of uniting the whole of humanity.

Influence of Gandhi

Like political and social thoughts, even religious views of Vinoba was highly influenced by
Gandhi. At the same time, like all other spheres, even in religious sphere, Vinoba took guidance from

Gandhi, but did not get stuck with Gandhian approach to religion. In fact, he went much ahead of
Gandhi and developed his own unique view of religion which was in keeping with Gandhian view but

was much more developed and sophisticated than Gandhi.
Like Gandhi, in his initial days Vinoba was deeply concerned about finding the right spiritual

path and at the same time he wanted to help people by serving them in whichever way possible. He
could not decide which inclination to pursue and was thus in search of the Guru who can guide him in

the right direction. It is during this period of internal struggle that he met Gandhi, who could change his
life and move it towards the desired goal synthesizing both his inclinations. As observed by Jaiprakash

Narayan, “To go back to his early days again. There were from the beginning two urges, or rather two
tributaries of a single stream of urge that impelled Vinoba onward. The one came from his identification

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