Letter 4G
2nd December, 1990 My dear Pranav,
Vinoba always believed in reconciling different view points and different darsanas, using the technique of gentle persuasion. “Abbidheyam param samyam” (The aim was to achiéve maximum equality) was his motto.
He was a great student of religious literature. Jnaneshwar, Tukaram, Tulsidas,Kabir, Mirabai, Madhav Deva, Thiruvalluvar and many other Bhaktas were his source of inspiriation. He learnt Arabic to read the Koran.
One of his important achievements is his edited version of all the great religious texts. He kept the most significant parts of each book, according to his views. He published these books in Marathi and Hindi. Later, they were also translated into other languages. It seems a very simple and easy job. In reality it was not so.
Vinoba summarised Naam Ghosha in 1962 andin 1963 he published “Koran Saar” (summary of Koran) in Marathi. In 1964 he prepared Texts of Manushasanam (summary of Manu Smriti), Vedania Sudha, Vinayanjali and Gurubodbsar.
In 1967, he completed his book, “Essence of Christianity”.In 1968 he published ‘Rgveda Saar’ and in 1969, Asbtadashi (eighteeen Upanisads) Chayan. He published 'Samanasutta’ Qain Texts) in 1975,
He had given up his name and started signing as “Ram Hari since 25th August, 1974.
Some religious people consider all these efforts as sacrilegous. But Vinoba was a deeply religious man. His efforts did not give offence to anybody, as he was interested in finding out genuine similarities and was perceptive to good from all sources. His Sarvadbarma Prathana is a classic example of this idea of finding the highest common factor in all religious teachings. It is a string of
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