________________
In his bus campaign at Montgomery USA, Martin Luther King said,
"The chronicle of 50,000 Negroes who took to heart the principles of non-violence, who learnt to fight for their rights with the weapon of love and who in the progress,
acquired a new estimate of their own human worth"
Yet parallel Hiroshima annihilation, brutal Nazi atrocities during World War II, killing fields in Cambodia, brutal violence in Kosovo and many such incidents in all parts of the world keep recurring. Agonizing aggravation of terrorism has in recent years raised its destructive head in an alarming manner all over the world.
Jain religion offers the persuasive tool of non-violence to eradicate the culture of violence from the hearts and minds of human beings and to bring in its place the culture of non-violence through attitudinal change for promoting healthy understanding.
Diplomats at United Nations and spiritualists at the Parliament of World's Religions ought to work in unison to bring about attitudinal change in favor of non-violent modes of settling disputes between nations instead of taking to arms at the slightest pretext. Cessation of hectic arms race, destruction of nuclear weapons arsenal and progress towards disarmament would set the tone for a more effective role of global culture of non-violence for durable world peace.
B. Non-violence at Food Consumption level
It is distressing that human race which has already crossed 6 billion marks continues to mercilessly kill animals and birds to provide food. It is feared that the Earth's total biological diversity, 25% is at serious risk of extinction. Human population goes on adding 90 million every year, while increasing human appetite goes on slaughtering and reducing animal population leading to a dangerous imbalance in the globally interdependent universe. Interdependence as per Jain view should be constructive and not destructive.
Ahimsa: The Ultimate Winner
*
(97)
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org