Vinoba said that in a democracy the people are power. The ‘Government has no power independent of its people. How did it come about? Vinoba said that it was the result of the thoughts planted in the minds of the people for generations. Those thoughts were expressed in action. Vinoba’s basic message was the need to spread good thoughts. He called it Vicbar Prasar (dissemi- nation of thoughts).
Vinoba provided many examples to support his conviction about the relation between the Government and the people. Who changed the society in their own times? Were they kings? Were they the government? No! they were thinkers. They were promoters of thoughts. Jean Jaques Rousseau and Voltaire laid the idea-base for the French Revolution of 1789. Karl Marx offered the thoughts for the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Chinese Revolution of 1948, Gandhiji’s ideas of non-violent non-coopera-
tion moved the masses, and Independend India in 1947.
People remember the Buddha and Mahavira but nobody remembers the kings who ruled at that time. So too we rememeber Kabir and Tulsidas in North India; Chaitanya Mahaprabhoo, Ramkrishna Paramhansa and Ravindranath Thakur in Bengal; Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, Manikawachkar and Nammalvar in Tamilnadu. The Chola, Pandya or Pallava kingdoms are in history books, but these great men remain alive in the lives of the common people through their ideas.
It is the people’s power which Shri Krishna used to protect the villagers of Mathura. When there was a deluge of rain, Lord Krishna taught self-help to the people of Mathura and saved them from it. He joined everyone in that task. He asked them to give him a hand in the task. Each one was asked to help. The old and the young, men and women everyone joined him and they achieved a miracle. Miracles can happen with the People’s power. Lord Krishna planted the idea of self-help and self-reliance which moved the people to action. Legend made it into a physical miracle. The story in the Mahabharata is that Krishna lifted the
Govardhana mountain to save the people of Mathura. Such is the power of thought. Ideas must be broadcast, they
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