Jain Journal 1998 01

SR No.: 520129
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 42
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 30

NAG: INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF NON-VIOLENCE
criticised by the aggressive imperialists of the West as a land of inaction and passivity. The West occasionally offered its patronising appreciation of Eastern doctrines and thoughts, but in actual life pursued the path of aggressive wars of domination and exploitation. Thence followed the devastating world wars of competitive imperialism which now threaten to destroy the entire fabric of human civilisation with Atom bomb. That would be a tragic anti-climax of all the pretensions of Western activism and utilitarian philosophy.
The West may yet learn from the East; and we should say this not in a spirit of vain gloriousness but with profound sympathy for our Western cousins who form a valuable member of the human family. The guiding principle of our thought and action should be the immortal truth of Non-violence which alone can drag mankind out of the quicksand of self destruction and re-establish us all in the world of Life and Joy. Joy is not a privilege for the few; like light and air it is the birthright of all sentient beings. Not human groups alone but the animals also are in need of joy, health and repose; yet how cruel could we civilized human beings be towards animals are demonstrated before our eyes from day to day. India is probably the first country where we find mention in the edicts of an emperor (Asoka in 3rd. century B.C.) referring to hospitals and treatments of diseased animals (Pashuchikitsā). How many of such life-saving (not life-destroying) sciences have been developed in India, China and other Eastern countries, should be thoroughly investigated. It is unfortunate, no doubt, that we in the East have not been able to maintain those high standards of ethical living and that we allowed ourselves to be degraded and brutalised. So much so that we could label certain sections of our fellow beings as and "backward" "untouchable," and we have been rightly punished by history.
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But we have every hope that with the dawn of Freedom, and the defusion of True knowledge through free education, the men and women of New Asia would emerge with a new faith in the divinity of man. Divinity is not a mythical status in some legendary heavens; it is the crowning glory of man's self-realization through self-control and selfsacrifice. All great souls of Asia have invariably preached that to attain supreme wisdom and emancipation, we must be ready for extreme self-sacrifice; for self or ego is the great obstacle to liberation. Emancipation is not a post-mortem affair; it has got to be earned, from day to day, from hour to hour, by Tapasya or self-discipline. It is here where the West has been judged by two World Wars and found wanting. Like an elder brother the East, with longer history of suffering, me to the rescue of the West. Our two civilisations form a