INDIA: A Man on Foot

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Eight Swishes. Vinoba Bhave is a sick man: he has a duodenal ulcer and malaria. For food, he takes only two cups of milk daily, the second laced with honey. Yet somehow he finds the energy to walk a steady ten to 20 miles a day. When he is on the road, he and his disciples get up in some sleeping village at 3 a.m. There is a patter of handclaps, a tinkling bell, the flash of a kerosene lantern, the shuffling of sandals in the dust, and the little group departs for the next village, singing hymns. When he is not on the road, Vinoba gets up an hour later and meditates for an hour. At 5, he has his first cup of milk, swishing each mouthful exactly eight times before swallowing.

Bhave's entourage numbers a dozen or more enthusiastic young Hindus, male and female, average age about 24, who stay three months to a year with him, so that the membership is constantly changing. Some disciples usually precede him to the next village, to announce his arrival from a sound truck and to see that everything is in order (including latrine-digging, if a big crowd is expected). The only permanent member of the group is Damadar Das, 38, who joined Gandhi at 18 and became Bhave's secretary after the Mahatma died. Damadar Das mails copies of Vinoba's speeches to the newspapers and keeps track of the land deeds, although each one is shrewdly inspected and initialed by Bhave personally.

Bhave's ashram (retreat) is at Puanar in Madhya Pradesh, about six miles from Gandhi's former ashram at Wardha. The main bungalow at Puanar, donated by Gandhi's old benefactor, the late Millionaire Jamnalal Bajaj, seemed so luxurious to the ascetic Bhave that he was tempted to refuse it. Finally he accepted, but stripped the bungalow to its bare walls. Like Gandhi before him, Bhave is an expert spinner and weaver. Unless it is raining, he sleeps outdoors every night, whether on the road or at Puanar.

Lifelong Celibacy. Vinoba Bhave was born 57 years ago to a Brahman (high-caste) family in Gangoda, a village in western India. His given name was Vinayak, but Gandhi changed it to Vinoba in later years, and the disciple accepted it as his name. At ten the boy began his career of holy man: he made a resolution of lifelong celibacy, gave up sweets and started going barefoot. Gandhi, who in young manhood was a lawyer and a comfortably married man, admired Vinoba's untarnished virginity. The Mahatma frequently said that his only regret in life was that he had known the delights of sex.

At 20, Bhave was shipped off to study at Bombay, but went instead to Bengal. Apparently (he is reticent about his early life) he joined the nationalist movement in Bengal, eating at public kitchens. He studied Sanskrit at Benares, and became deeply immersed in Hindu theology. He first saw Gandhi in 1916. Being too shy to approach the Mahatma, Bhave wrote a letter instead, and Gandhi invited him to join the ashram at Sabarmati. When Gandhi learned that his new follower had not written to his family for several years, he sat down himself and wrote to Bhave's father: "Your Vinoba is with me. His spiritual attainments are such as I myself attained only after a long struggle."