Vinoba and Death: (Acharya Vinoba Bhave Centenary Edition) An Old and Rare Book

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Acharya Vinoba Bhave shoved off his mortal coil in a very peaceful manner on the morning of the 15th of November 1982. The day was doubly significant. It was not only the anniversary of the mahanirwan of Lord Mahavir, so sacred to the Jains, but also Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, one of the most auspicious days of a year for the Hindus.

In Vinobaji's view. "death is the mildest form of God." It was, therefore, not surprising to learn that Vinobaji had actually invited death by undertaking a fast. As soon as Shri Nargolkar and I myself came to know about Vinobaji's resolve to die by fasting, we left our ashramand got into the next available train from Bombay to Wardha. It was the 11th of November when we reached Pavnar ashram, situated seven kilometers away from the town, on the bank of a small river, Dham by name. We had Vinobaji's darshan and we immediately left the place. For, scores of Vinobaji's admirers and followers had, just like us, arrived at the ashram on getting the news. We naturally did not want to stay on and add to the burden of the Ashramites who had always been hospitable to us in the past.

A few months later, that is, in 1983, we received a letter from Dr Mahendra Agrawal, Editor of "Gandhi Marg", then a monthly, published from New Delhi by Gandhi Peace Foundation. The Editor had in his letter invited Shri Nargolkar to write an article on any aspect of Vinobaji's life, mission and philosophy. He had suggested some topics and had given Shri Nargolkar the freedom VINOBA AND DEATH

to choose any from among them for his essay. Shri Nargolkar wrote back to him accepting the invitation. But he in turn suggested a few more topics and informed the Editor that he would be writing on "Vinoba and Death". Nargolkar's essay was accepted and published by the Editor in "Gandhi Marg", which came out on the 15th of November 1983, the first anniversary of Vinobaji's death.

We had translated this English essay into Hindi and had published it independently in the form of a booklet at that very time. All true Gandhians and close associates of Mahatma Gandhi lived long. Shri C.Rajagopalachari, Acharya Kakasaheb Kalelkar, Acharya Kripalani, saintly Ravishankar Maharaj of Gujarat were all nonagenarians. Shri Morarjibhai Desai was the last of the second generation of Gandhians. But he passed away recently before he could complete the hundredth year of his age. Had Vinobaji chosen to live, he would have perhaps completed hundred years of his life on the 11th of September 1995. We, therefore, thought that publishing a reprint of "Vinoba and Death" would be appropriate on such an occasion, as the essay is an attempt at exploring Vinobaji's life philosophy in the context of the subject of the significance of life and death.

We consider ourselves fortunate in that Shri S. Ramakrishnan of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, kindly agreed to my request to him in this respect and has reprinted the booklet as Bhavan's publication. We owe our thanks to him.