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18
NONVIOLENCE
The assertion 'as you sow so shall you reap' is one way of indicating the inseparable relationship of means and ends. The means one uses determine the ends one reaches. It cannot be otherwise. Good means result in good ends, and evil means lead to evil ends. Good ends can be achieved only through good, not evil means. When one attempts to reach good ends through evil means, one fails. There is direct correlationship between means and ends. Violence has inherent in it the seeds of its own destruction. One may give numerous reasons for this. Violence denies respect for persons. Violence abrogates the sacredness of personality. It assumes that the person who exercises violence has absolute sovereignty over the other. The basic reason, however, is embodied in the statement that those who live by violence die by violence. The effect is like the cause; action and reaction are identical. The means one uses determine the end he himself will come to.
What is true of violence is true of non-violence also. If one uses non-violence, he will come to a good end, either here or in the hereafter. Belief in this is what sustains the one who practises non-violent resistance to evil. He will resist evil but - if resistance requires killing, he will allow himself to be killed in the end rather than killing the other. He believes this because he believes that evil inevitably bears evil consequences. His act of love will have beneficial consequences of two types. It will bear good fruits for himself, and it will also have the consequence of sooner or later changing the one who
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