must be spread to the people. They must be deep casted in their minds. They sprout often in the most unlikely places. Such is their power. They take wings. Incidentally, Vinoba left his home for Varanasi on 25th March, 1916 and started the Brahmavidhya Mandir, an ashram for women who sought spiritual knowledge as a group, at Pavnar on 25th March, 1957. Today is the 33rd anniversary of that institution.
With love,
Yours,
L.N. Godbole
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Letter 9
1st April, 1990
My dear Pranav,
In one of his articles Vinoba has described a very interesting story from the Vedas. There were ten travellers passing through a dense forest. They were naturally worried about their safety. They decided that since they were all walking through the forest they should keep track of their number: Ten. Each one started counting and found that there were nine people. All tried their hand and came to the same conclusion "Nine". They got terribly worried. Where did they lose one of them?
After a great deal of argument they realised that the missing number was "I". Each one of them had counted the others and had forgotten to count himself! That was why all the ten of them had by one voice decided that they were only nine, and that one of them was missing (1).
Don't we behave in the same way? We always say, We must have clean homes, clean rooms, clean schools, clean streets and a clean city. We should do this and we should do that. But things remain as they are. Why?
The reason according to Vinoba is simple. "We" is the
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