Intuition and the Creation of a Better World
Vinoba Bhave
Have the courage to say, "I shall surely lift myself up". Do not kill the power of your mind, thinking, "I am a worthless worldly creature". Do not clip the wings of imagination; spread them out. Take the chandul as your model. When it sees the rising sun, it thinks it can reach the sun, and flies towards it. We too should be like that. However high the poor chandul flies, can it ever reach the sun? But through the imagination, it can certainly attain the sun. But our behaviour is just the opposite. We do not rise even as high as we can, but instead, we cramp our imagination, weaken our power of growth, and so flutter down to earth. Even the power that is ours, we lose by undervaluing it. When imagination is crippled one cannot but fall down. Let the imagination, therefore, be upward-looking. Since man progresses with the help of the imagination, do not throttle it. Don't whine รท "Brother, do not leave the beaten track; Stay where you are in the world, don't wander here and there in vain." Don't dishonour your soul. The seeker can be steady only when he has wide imagination and self-confidence. Only by these can he sustain himself and grow.
Vinoba Bhave, Talks on the Gita, pp. 57-8
