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48 / JAIN STUDIES AND SCIENCE
destroyed, they affect rains, desserts creep in and farm output is reduced. All these, in turn, affect our economy and humans are the ultimate victims.
Conclusion
How then can we understand the importance of environmental conservation? If we realise that all animals and plants have soul equivalent to one of humans, the conservation of environment will become a natural fall-out. All the concerns of scientific fraternity can be effectively addressed by the acceptance of Mahapragya's principle of Equivalence of Souls. Once this principle is embraced, two powerful things will spontaneously happen -
Ahimsa or Passive Compassion - Not to harm any other souls: human, animal or plant. This is firmly established and widely accepted tenet of Jainism.
Kindness or Positive Compassion - Proactively help others. Our help can result in benefiting others. This is a popular principle of
socialism. Science and Spiritualism thus seem to find a cosy confluence in the Principle of Equivalence of Souls. Humans tend to achieve their selfish goals at the cost of others, but the inculcation of positive and negative compassion can transform them to live a selfless life. A human's life is worth not by what he gets from the environment but from what he gives back to it. The Principle of Equivalence of Souls has the potential to yield universal friendship which transcends all boundaries of nations and races..
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