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beings ? This doubt has been cleared here and it has been established that man can avoid violence against air-bodied beings.
Ej' means air, wind. For abandoning violence of air-bodied beings the word used is dugumchha or jugupsa. In Agams this word has been generally used to convey the meanings-contempt, self-pity, infamy, loose talk and criticism of ascetic conduct. But here it means abandoning.
In this paragraph emphasis has been laid on three special means of avoiding violence
(1) Visualizing the terror-To know and understand the fact that violence breeds distressful conditions like pain, fear, disturbances, and miseries in the next birth.
(2) Ponder over harms-To ponder over the fact that violence is detrimental to soul and makes the progress towards right knowledge, perception or faith and conduct very difficult.
(3) Comparability with self—The awareness of concordance of one's own feelings of pleasure and pain with that of other beings. For example—“I like pleasure and dislike pain. In the same way other beings too like pleasure and dislike pain.” This is the attitude of comparing self with others.
The code of ahimsa should not be observed as a blind faith or just traditionally, it should be observed with knowledge and compassion. Also the feeling of ahimsa should be infused into samskar (temperament or second nature). That is practical significance of the said three means of avoiding violence.
He who knows the inner self (spirituality) knows the outer (world). This statement can be analyzed from various angles.
(1) Adhyatma (spirituality or spiritualism) means the awareness of the form of the self. When one knows the form of the self or chetan (the life force or the living) he automatically knows about the form of its antithesis, matter or jad (the material force or the non-living). One who properly knows a concept, also properly knows its contrary. शस्त्र परिज्ञा : प्रथम अध्ययन
(99) Shastra Parijna : Frist Chapter
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