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PROLOGUE
This book brings together Major Presentations and Key Note Speeches made by me over the last 12 years on the all-important and increasingly relevant and topical theme of peace through nonviolence at historic international conferences, conventions and symposia. The speeches have been duly edited, updated and where necessary elaborated to be readable in a book form.
The common theme running through all my presentations and essays is the need to create awareness and confidence about non-violence as a potent instrument for ushering in durable peace as well as to promote its widest possible practice at individual and collective levels.
All through history, it has been witnessed that violence cannot be eradicated by violence; on the contrary it has served to aggravate it. Humanity needs to develop the mindset that AHIMSA alone can be the ultimate saviour of this strife-torn, terror-targeted and environmentally polluted world of ours.
Jain approach to this vital issue has been analyzed and elaborated in some details since Jain religion stands out as the only religion which from very ancient pre-Vedic times enshrined non-violence to the highest pedestal for moulding peaceful and compassionate thoughts, expressions and actions not only at the level of individuals, but also of societies.
With world-wide unbridled violence and mounting terrorism becoming an issue of acute concern, unpalatable shock, anxiety and fear, it is clear that no resolutions of the U.N. or declarations of Summit Conferences on the one hand, and military action on the other will be able to tackle or cope with the crisis. Time has come to assert the courage of non-violence and to reinforce by spiritual and philosophical underpinning the global efforts to fight and overcome violence and terrorism. One
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