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From: jayasim@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: Mountbatten's role in India (Ho
Message-ID: <141700074@uiucdcsb>
Date: Sun, 23-Feb-86 00:52:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.141700074
Posted: Sun Feb 23 00:52:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 04:24:25 EST
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Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!jayasim    Feb 22 23:52:00 1986


/* Written  2:58 am  Feb 17, 1986 by dmiruke@isis.UUCP in uiucdcsb:net.nlang.india */
>	In spite of all the greatness of non-violence and with respect to all
>those like Mahatma Gandhi, I still feel that a common man would have more
>respect and appreciation for his/her freedom if they had to sacrifice in
>a substantial manner for it. Many of ours and our fathers/grandfathers did
>sacrifice for India's freedom, but still the importance
>of freedom does not seem to be quite well-entrenched in the minds of most of

	I'm afraid I don't understand.  The two sentences seem to contradict
each other.  Do you mean to say that the impact of a non-violent sacrifice
is not as great as that of a violent one ?

>was a way of life in India. I just wish it were so. Even the essense of
>Indian philosophy (here I do not mean just hindu India, lest that might start
>another of those useless discussions, but the Indian culture as a whole), Gita
>was born on the battlefield. This is not to be-little its importance but just
>to say that under some circumstance the goals are better served by the use of
>force than just being non-violent.

	Too often there has been the notion (and this is still prevalent) that
one can tend to philosophize only when all is well.  One of the significances 
the Gita was born in the battlefield was to essentially negate this notion.
	The whole point of the Gita is NOT the advocacy of violence (or non-
violence for that matter).  But it is of interest to note that both Mahatma
Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave, perhaps the two most ardent believers in
non-violence of recent times have both been inspired by the Gita. 
	Gandhi says, "When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me 
in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to 
Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to
smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow".
	Vinoba (in "Talks on the Gita" given to fellow prisoners) says,
"The bond between the Gita and me transcends reason.  My heart and mind have
received more nourishment from the Gita than my body has from my mother's
milk.  I live and move in thhe atmosphere of the Gita.  The Gita is my life's
breath.  To vary the image, I swim in the sea of the Gita when I speak of it;
but when I'm alone, I dive to the depths of this ocean of nectar and there
rest at ease". 
	
d n jayasimha,
U of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana 
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