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Auspicious activities like mercy, kindness, compassion, friendship, etc., are virtues while baneful activities like violence, and lying, etc., are vices. The virtues and vices are opposite of each other. The virtues are natural and vices run counter to human nature. Any activity according to the nature is dharma while one that runs counter to the nature is sin. Therefore, noble activities like mercy, kindness, compassion, friendship, etc., constitute dharma and the ignoble activities like violence, and lying, etc constitute sin. The former results in karmic destruction and separation while the latter in karmic influx and bondage. The karmic destruction and separation aids spiritual emancipation and eventual liberation. Being aids to liberation, these noble activities or virtues are dharma. To consider them as causal to karmic bondage and worldly transmigration is to consider them as adharma. To consider dharma as adharma is false belief. (pp. 129-30) If only the pure volition is considered as causal to karmic destruction, only the fully detached 'Vitarāga' persons will be able to achieve it and none other will be able to do so for all those who are not fully detached have passions. (p. 133) All four feelings: of friendship (maitrī), joy at others' virtues (pramoda), mercy (kārunya), and neutrality (mādhyasthya) are auspicious feelings and being auspicious they are natural and do not run counter to human nature. They are not flaws in any case. (p. 137) The auspicious feelings that arise due to reduction in passions, auspicious activities and destructo-subsidential feelings result in destruction of the destructive karmas in the form of their destruction cum subsidence. They also result in ascendance in the intensities of the auspicious types of non-destructive karmas. When the passions are destroyed the rise of pure volition coupled with auspicious activities become instrumental in destruction of the non-destructive karmas. It is only then that the infinite set of
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Positive Non-Violence
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