but equality is an ethical concept.
This idea came to our leaders through their Western education. How could Pandit Nehru and his servant have the same right to decide about his government? How could they have equal voting rights? When this question was raised before Vinoba, he gave a beautiful answer. He spoke of Pandit Nehru as a great adhyatmic, who knew that his soul (atman) and that of his servant’s were equal and hence: he insisted on equal voting rights. This is easily understood by the common villager in India, better than the sophisticated history and development of ideas on adult franchise in Europe.
Vinoba’s genius lay in connecting modern thoughts and ideas to age-old traditions of Vedanta and Adhyatma in our country. That is why, Pranav, people find tele-serials of the Ramayan and the Mahabbarat gripping and relevant today. Everyone knows the epics already, but they do not want to miss a single episode! There is no suspense, but there is a great desire to follow our epics year after year. If you want to understand India, you must seek your roots in all these sources.
With love,
Yours, L.N. Godbole
. 15th April, 1990 My dear Pranav,
Vinoba did not claim to be a philosopher. In fact, he said, “I am a retail dealer’(1). He took ideas from all the great sages,
and other religious thinkers and presented in simple language to us.
His basic contribution lies in Samanvaya (reconciliation). He has summarised many religious texts, selected ideas from each
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