Brahman. It is not some idol, though you can see it in an idol form or even in empty space. Once he was asked, “Are you as quite sure of God’s existence as you are of the existence of this lamp in front of us?” He said, “I positively believe that God exists. As for the lamp in front of us, I cannot guarantee that it does in fact exist” (1). This is difficult to understand. You will learn later in your life when you read Bertrand Russell on “Reality and Appearance”, how Russell proved logically that a table is possibly not a table (2).
Therefore, if you want to learn and understand Vinoba’s thoughts, it is very necessary to understand that he was a firm believer in Brahman.
He explains this axiom in a simple way. We learn Geometry or Science (metry) of Geo (land or world). The first definition that is taught in Euclid’s Geometry is that of a point. It has existence but no magnitude. It means that a point has no length, breadth or depth. If that is so, how can you “see” it? How can you “imagine” it? If you cannot imagine it, then how can you say that it “is”? But you start with an assumption of its existence. You start with its existence as a reality. The point moving in a direction is a line; a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. The intersecting lines, angles, triangle, rectangle and the whole of geometry, engineering and designing are all based on this definition of a point. Vinoba says that for him Brahman is such a self-evident truth. Because it “is”.
I think, I have written enough for one letter.
With love,
Yours, L.N. Godbole
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