Page 71 - Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 21st Century ISBN

21oha “krkCnh esa vkpk;Z fouksck Hkkos dh izklafxdrk

39. Vinoba, Talks on the Gita, (2017 edition), p. 233. It is a quote from Matthew 6: 16-18.

40. The occasion was when some Christians (who were drawn from different nationalities and
had assembled at Nagpur to attend an International Theological Council) met Vinoba at
Pavnar In October 1971. See, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-
ZWGF0lkaCBRHBBcjdVZ0hDUHc/view retrieved on January 11, 2018.

41. The occasion and reference was the same as above.
42. The age old Syrian Christian community and traditions in Kerala is perhaps an exception to this
phenomenon.

43. Harijan, 26.3.1955 as quoted in in Tandon, Selections from Vinoba, p. 308.
44. Nirmala Deshpande, Kranti Ki Raah Par, p. 20 as quoted in in Tandon, Selections from
Vinoba, p. 308. Perhaps, he did not appreciate the Church view that the message of Christ
could not be detached from the person of Christ. According to the Christians, Lord Jesus
Christ is Himself the ‘Good News’.
nd
45. Vinoba, Talks on the Gita (Pavnar: Paramdham Prakashan, 22 Edition, 2017), p. 255.
46. Vinoba was not the first to raise this point to the Christian missionaries. Many others too
among the modern and contemporary thinkers in India have thought so. Raja Rammohun Roy
in his “Precepts of Jesus: the Guide to Peace and Happiness…” would not include the
materials other than the ethical exhortations of Lord Jesus Christ. His dialectics and polemics
with the Christian missionaries of his time have been legendary. Later, Mahatma Gandhi had
difficulties to accept the Christian understanding of the ‘Son of God’, the value of Jesus’ vicarious
suffering and death on the Cross, etc. Regarding Church related concepts, Gandhi obviously
adhered to the line followed by Tolstoy, the author of “Kingdom of God is Within You.” 1

47. Matthew 28: 16-20, Mark 16: 14-17.

48. The Vatican Council 2 Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity begins thus: “Having been
divinely sent to the nations that she might be “the universal sacrament of salvation,” the Church
in obedience to the command of her founder (Mt 16: 15), and because it is demanded by her
own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men (See, No. 1 of the same
document).

49. John, 20:31 (Bengaluru: RSV Bible, Theological Publications in India, 1991).

50. The Crucifix was gifted to him by a Christian friend.
51. Vinoba Bhave, Moved By Love, The Memoirs of Vinoba Bhave, (Wardha: Paramdham
Prakashan, 1994), p. 212.

52. It was said to have been carved on a log of wood by one of the visitors to the Ashram.

71