Non Violence

SR No.: 007551
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation
Publication Year: 2004
Total Pages: 61
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Akram Vigyan
File Size: 53 KB

Page 31

Ahimsa
Ahimsa
Boiled Water For Drinking Questioner : Why are we told to drink boiled water?
dogmatic by preaching that one must stop eating onions and potatoes. For heaven's sakes! Why? What do you have against potatoes and onions? On the contrary, when one is forced to sacrifice the things he enjoys, he will constantly think about them, instead of thinking about The Lord!
I Too Had Observed These Rules
Dadashri : There are infinite life forms even in just one drop of water. Boiling water kills these life forms. By drinking boiled water, your body stays healthy, and when the body is healthy, your awareness increases. People however have completely misunderstood this concept.
Although I was not born a Jain, I too used to observe the rules of not eating root crops, practicing choviyar (not eating after dark) and I always drank boiled water, whether I was at home or out of town. My business partner and I would always carry a flask of boiled water wherever we went. We observed The Lord's prescribed rules. This was my practice even before The Enlightenment
The Lord has shown us all the different ways to stay healthy and drinking boiled water is one of them. Drinking unboiled water is violence towards the infinite live organisms in the water. Yet people insist on not boiling the water in order to prevent himsa) at the expense of their own health. Instead The Lord has told you to boil the drinking water in order to keep your body healthy. But that water has to be consumed within eight hours, after which you should not drink it because life forms will start to grow in it again.
If someone finds these practices too rigid and difficult, I would tell him that he is not obligated to follow them, but if he did, he would indeed benefit from doing so. The Lord has given us these rules so that we may recognize their benefits and not so that we become dogmatic about them.
So it is more for the sake of health and not so much for the violence, that people are told to boil their drinking water. Drinking boiled water prevents the accumulation of other organisms in the stomach. This is helpful in increasing your awareness. By boiling the water, the larger organisms are destroyed.
Questioner: So does that not constitute violence?
The Gnani Purush does not need to renounce or acquire anything. Even then I observe choviyar because occasionally someone will tell me that it upsets him to know that I do not adhere to the timings. Sacrifices and renunciation is of no significance when one reaches the level of a Gnani. People interpret and practice these rules according to their level of understanding. The Gnani Purush does not lack anything. The Lord calls the Gnani Purush a non-violent One in an ocean of violence. From the very beginning I have observed choviyar, but nowadays because of my satsang schedule, I am only able to do so on certain days. My intention is to observe it completely, and that is what counts!
Dadashri : This kind of violence does not have much significance because it contributes to the health of your body. With a healthy body one can practice religion. In this world there is nothing but violence. When you eat or drink, you consume nothing but life forms.
The Lord has not given any emphasis on the violence