As a young boy he was influenced by the books of Veer Savarkar. The 1857 war of Independence (which was called the Sepoys Mutiny by historians) and the Life of Mazzini (an Italian leader) were some of the books that he circulated amongst his friends. They were all proscribed books.
In 1916, instead of going to Bombay for his Intermediate University Examination, he left for Varanasi. He was influenced hailed by the Bengalee revolutionaries. His ascetic mind which called him to the Himalayas. He went to Varanasi, where he read Mahatma Gandhi's speech. He saw the unity of his ascetic search and the revolutionery new approach of Gandhi in the political field in 1916. That year marks the end of the first chapter in his life.
For the next thirty years he kept developing as a Vedic scholar, experimenter in khadi, propagator of non-violent Satya- graba, working as a scavenger to end the idea of untouchability attached to scavenging and a teacher who crystallised the Gandhian idea of a New Education. He was a rather harsh,
. disciplined, intensely intelligent, scholarly individual who was already recognised as an interpreter of the Gita. He became an ideal satyagrahi in the mind of Gandhi. He was therefore chosen as the First Individuals satyagrabi by Gandhi in 1940.
Most of Vinoba’s early ideas were already established after thinking and working them over for thirty years. Thenceforth we come to the third and most creative stage of his life.
Mahatma Gandhi died on 30th January, 1948. The political aim of independence from Britain was achieved on 15th August, 1947. The political process of the constitution making and governing was taken over by leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajaji and Dr. Rajendra Prasad. All of them had their political training with Gandhi. The Sovereign Democratic, Republic of India was estab- lished by the Constitution of 26th January, 1950.
But that was only the political part of Gandhi’s Mission. Vinoba was not cut out for it. He was attached to the rest of Mahatma’s ideas. The political part was a transient one: The eternal part of Gandhi was his belief in Truth, Non-violence and Sarvodaya. The rational and logical base of these Gandhian beliefs was the forte of Vinoba.
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