________________ 176 Discourses on Shrimad Rajchandra by Gandhiji overflow with pain and agony. We should feel that, and instead of living in such a world, it is better that our body collapses, that it falls dead. In my opinion, Raichandbhai died at such a young age only because of the agony he was suffering from within. It is true that he was suffering from some physical illness, but more serious than that disease was the unbearable agony he suffered by seeing the sins that were being committed by people all over the world. If it was only the physical disease that he suffered - he had the capacity to bear the bodily pain and overcome it, but he questioned how he could attain total freedom in such dark times. It was a sign of the deep compassion that he felt. The extreme boundary of compassion does not lie in not killing small organisms. It is quite true that one should not kill such organisms or for that matter any other creature, but we should ensure that these organisms are not born at all. There is more cruelty in allowing the organisms to be born than the cruelty involved in killing them. We all are responsible for the spread of these organisms in the world. They are created by the Jain householders, and even by myself, a Vaishnav. We are not well versed in practising or observing sanitation. When we accumulate materialistic possessions, we do not realise how many such minute lifeforms we end up creating in the process. It is compassionate to abstain from killing small organisms, mosquitoes and other such insects, but there is greater compassion in not killing a human being. If there was a choice between killing a human being or an insect, what should be the choice? It is possible that one may have to spare an insect by killing a man, or vice versa. My choice would be to spare both, the man and the insect. That is true compassion.