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Rays of Dharma
of compassion; otherwise he is going to fail in differentiating violence from non-violence; a sort of darkness would prevail at his heart. By virtue of that darkness, he is likely to indulge in violent activity while claiming to be kind. For being truly kind and compassionate, one thus needs to have the lamp of discretion.
One should therefore either be enlightened or he should be guided by an enlightened person; for seeking guidance it is necessary to go to the shelter of an enlightened person and abide by his instructions. Otherwise, he is likely to get proud of his minimal understanding and gets stuck up with it. Molasses tastes sweet even if one takes it in the dark; it is however required to make sure that it is not stained with the poison of lizard.
One man was bitten by a dog. He took the required injections and got cured. Then he thought that no one else should be subjected to such bite. As such, he donated Rs. 50,000 for killing dogs. He had a kind intention, but due to indiscretion he arranged for embarking upon a violent project. The enlightened persons have therefore said that donations need to be associated with discretion and kindness.
When one happens to witness the violence for the first time, he experiences a sense of trembling, but that sense disappears if he witnesses it repeatedly; he gets conditioned to it and his sense of
ompassion gets blunt. It was a time when our hearts used to shiver by the talks of violence, but that feeling no longer exists. Though we may not be directly committing violence, we do become a part of it directly or indirectly. We like to use shoes, purses, wallets etc. made of soft leather; how many of us are aware that the leather is obtained by skinning the young calves alive? The leather obtained from the dead animals is not so smooth.
We, Jains claim to observe non-violence and avoid taking vegetables on some days for that purpose; but we do not mind resorting to lies in our business dealings. This happens because our concept of non-violence has remained traditional and we refuse to adopt a rational approach. There are vegetarian clubs at several places abroad. The
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