Jainism The Cosmic Vision

SR No.: 034278
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Mahavir Foundation
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 137
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision confined to religion or to the progress of the soul, but, he said, it should permeate one's life and be reflected in every field of activity. It can be practised by children and the young, women and the old. There are two conditions necessary. Love for all and a steadfast belief in God, whom love is personified. It should become a way of life, he emphasised, and be used for achieving world peace.
Gandhi's concept of non-violence was influenced by anekant philosophy. In 1925, he observed in Young India : "I believed that I was always right and my honest critics wrong. But now I realise that we both were right in our own ways. Then I stopped criticising my opponents or critics. I learnt that I must try to look at the situation or a problem from a Muslim's or a Sikh's point of view." He later said, "My principle of anekant is based on two things - truth and non-violence."
Gandhi protested against the practice of animal killing either for researching drugs or in the name of religion. If one's thoughts or actions are guided by violent ideas, it will be considered as violence, but to speak out bitter truth is not violence. He advocated non-violent struggle against injustice and violence in any form. On October 15, 1931, he wrote in Navjivan: "You say non-violent struggle is not possible and have not known a non-violent revolution in history. But my ambition is to provide such an example. My dream is that my country should achieve independence through non-violence and want the world to know that I will not want to make my country independent at the cost of non-violence."
During the time of Mahavira, animal killing, for religious rituals and for food, was resorted to. And during Gandhiji's
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A Joumey of Ahimsa time, too, violence was visible everywhere as a result of industrialisation. It was at that time that he strongly advocated practice of non-violence in every field of human activity - economic, political and social. He proved that non-violent struggle can lead to victory. The war-weary world, steeped in violence and afflicated with terrorism, looks up to Gandhi for inspiration and guidance. How to fight injustice ? By nonviolent struggle or satyagraha, said Gandhi. It is his atom bomb to meet the challenge posed by destructive atom bombs.
In 1949 winter on a Sunday an African American student, in Philadelphia, had come to listen about Mahatma Gandhi. He knew that Gandhi had fought a long non-violent struggle for India's independence. His weapon was satyagraha. The young man, Martin Luther King Jr., was favourably impressed by Gandhi's non-violent movement. Six years later, he raised his voice against apartheid. He led peace rally. He was attacked, but he stuck to the path of non-violence. Both he and Gandhi did not deviate from the chosen path and violence claimed them both
Gandhiji's autobiography had a great impact on Adolfo P'erez Esquirel, who won the Nobel Prize in 1980, and who put into practice Gandhi's concept of village self-sufficiency. Gandhi's autobiography also influenced Aung San Sun Kyi of Burma - Myanmar - who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Suu Kyi has studied in a private school in Delhi in 1960. She, at that time, examined Gandhi's method of fighting against all evils by the non-violent way. 25 years later, she adopted the same method and fought for restoration of democracy in Burma.
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