________________
very substantial loss and Rajchandra would make a very good profit. The seller expressed his inability to make the delivery at that time and asked an extension of another one week.
Realizing this, Rajchandra pulled out the contract, tore it into many pieces and said to the seller, "brother, I know very well what is happening in the market. If you make this delivery, you will be completely ruined due to this loss and I will make some profit. For me, this is himsa where you get ruined and I become richer. I do not do this kind of business. So the contract is nullified," and left his shop. This is astounding. When Shrimad Rajchandra put himself into the shoes of the seller, and felt his pain and suffering, this is ahimsa.
LALA ROOP LAL JAIN and HIS AHIMSA IN PRACTICE - CONCERN FOR THE WEAK
In early 1900s, Lala Roop Lal Jain was a prominent and respected member of the Jain community in Punjab. He was a magistrate in the princely state of Faridkot during the British colonial days. In those days, being a magistrate was considered to be very respectable and prestigious position. Roop Lal Ji was an active, visionary, and ahimsak sharavak. He practiced the Jain way of life in everything he did.
In the 1920s and 1930s, he was also instrumental in the establishment and building of the Jinendra Jain Gurukul at Panchkula. Today, the City of Panchkula is a suburb of the City of Chandigarh and also a second capital city of the State of Haryana. I personally met Lala Roop Lal ji in the early 1960s when he used to live at the Jinendra Jain Gurukul.
The following story was told to me by Lala Roop Lal Ji's own eldest son, Des Raj Jain himself. "When Des Raj was born in the town of Faridkot (in Punjab), in the same town in another Jain family, a girl was also born a few months later. As was the custom in those days, the girl's father came to the boy's father (Lala Roop Lal ji) and said that he would to like to have his daughter engaged in a matrimonial relation with
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
251
