"The main reason why we look constantly to the Gita is that, whenever we need help, we may get it from the Gita. And, indeed, we always do get it"
About this Quote
Vinoba Bhave frames the Gita less as scripture to be revered than as a tool to be used. The line is built on a quiet, radical repositioning: “look constantly” sounds devotional, but the reason he gives is pragmatic - “whenever we need help.” He’s smuggling in a definition of faith that behaves like practice. The repetition of “we” matters, too. Bhave isn’t describing a private epiphany; he’s constructing a communal habit, a shared reflex that turns to a text the way a movement turns to its organizing principles.
The subtext is confidence without theatrics. “And, indeed” reads like a mild eyebrow raise at skeptics, followed by the clincher: “we always do get it.” That “always” is not an empirical claim so much as a rhetorical pledge. In an era of anti-colonial struggle and post-Independence social rebuilding, Bhave needed moral language that could survive disappointment, scarcity, and political compromise. By insisting the Gita reliably yields “help,” he recasts it as a renewable source of orientation: not answers for every policy question, but a steadying psychology for action under pressure.
Context sharpens the intent. As a Gandhian educator and reformer, Bhave’s project depended on disciplined inner life translating into public ethics - nonviolence, self-restraint, service. The Gita, long argued over as a text of war and duty, becomes in his hands a manual for staying ethically intact while doing hard things. He’s telling readers: return to it not to escape the world, but to keep from being deformed by it.
The subtext is confidence without theatrics. “And, indeed” reads like a mild eyebrow raise at skeptics, followed by the clincher: “we always do get it.” That “always” is not an empirical claim so much as a rhetorical pledge. In an era of anti-colonial struggle and post-Independence social rebuilding, Bhave needed moral language that could survive disappointment, scarcity, and political compromise. By insisting the Gita reliably yields “help,” he recasts it as a renewable source of orientation: not answers for every policy question, but a steadying psychology for action under pressure.
Context sharpens the intent. As a Gandhian educator and reformer, Bhave’s project depended on disciplined inner life translating into public ethics - nonviolence, self-restraint, service. The Gita, long argued over as a text of war and duty, becomes in his hands a manual for staying ethically intact while doing hard things. He’s telling readers: return to it not to escape the world, but to keep from being deformed by it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Bhagavad Gita |
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