Vinoba Bhave: freedom fighter, social reformer, spiritual titan

Born in the Konkan region of present-day Maharashtra on September 11, 1895, to a weaver named Narahari Shambhu Rao and Rukmini Devi, Vinayak Narahari Bhave was the eldest among five children.

Early years
While his father worked in Baroda, Vinayak grew up under the care of his grandfather and his mother, a religious person. It was largely due to her influence that he took to reading the Bhagavad Gita at a very young age. The epic played an important role in moulding his impressionable mind.

In 1918, when he was en route to Bombay (present Mumbai) to take the intermediate examination, a newspaper report about a speech delivered by Gandhiji at the Banaras Hindu University attracted his attention. After reading another article written by Gandhi, he decided to discontinue studies and threw his certificates into a fire. He wrote to Gandhi and, after exchanging letters, Bhave met Gandhi at the Kochrab Ashram in Ahmedabad on June 7, 1916 in response to the latter’s advice. Bhave evinced a lot of interest in activities at Gandhi’s ashram such as teaching, studying, efforts to improve the life of the community and spinning.As he continued participating at Gandhi’s ashram, the profile of his involvement in the activities also expanded.

Bhave shifted base to Wardha on April 8, 1921 and assumed charge of the Ashram there. Two years later, he published a monthly magazine in Marathi which contained essays written by him on the Upanishads. The magazine was published for three years. In 1925, Gandhi sent him to Vaikom in Kerala to help those socially ostracised enter the temple.

Role in freedom struggle
His active participation in diverse facets of the freedom struggle from British rule resulted in Bhave being detained several times, including a five-year term in the 1940s. When Gandhi chose him as the first individual Satyagrahi in a new non-violent campaign in 1940, Bhave shot to national prominence. By that time, he had come to be known as Vinoba, a shorter form of his name.

Social, religious initiatives
Bhave’s Sarvodaya movement was aimed at seeking solutions rooted in India’s spiritual ethos for challenges faced by the average person who belonged to a rural background.

He launched the Bhoodan (land gift/donation) movement at Pochampally in the Nalgonda district (of present Telangana) on April 18, 1951. He travelled across India to appeal to those with land to consider him as one of their sons and so gave him one-sixth of their land which he distributed to the landless poor. Non-violence and compassion were among the tenets of his philosophy. He also vigorously opposed the slaughtering of cows.

Bhave was a devout person steeped in the knowledge of Hindu scriptures with a broad, inclusive outlook that comprised aspects of many religions.

During his travels across India he had set up six ashrams including the Brahma Vidya Mandir ashram, a small community that he established at Paunar in the Wardha district of Maharashtra. In the 1960s, it promoted the Gandhian principles of self-sufficiency, non-violence, public service and an emphasis on technologically advanced agriculture

Bhave spent the final part of his life at the Brahma Vidya Mandir ashram, where he passed away on November 15, 1982.

INTERESTING FACTS

• During the tenures of imprisonment during the freedom movement, Vinoba Bhave usually wrote and read copiously. During one of those stints at the Vellore jail, he even learnt four South Indian languages. He also delivered numerous talks on the Bhagavad Gita in Marathi to fellow prisoners and often wrote on a wide range of religious themes that were indeed very close to his heart.
• As a scholar and thinker, Vinoba Bhave had translated several religious texts that were originally written in Sanskrit language so as to make them accessible to the common man as well. Bhave was also a great orator and a linguist who had an excellent command of several languages including Kannada, Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, English and Sanskrit, apart from Bhave’s native language, Marathi.
• He penned introductions to, and criticisms of religious and philosophical works like the Bhagavad Gita, the works of Adi Shankaracharya, the Bible and Quran. He referred to the Gita as “life’s breath.”