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These are just a few examples of how children if properly trained in a foundation ofahimsa, they can become our own teachers in areas in which we hardly ever paid any attention. This certainly was the case with me. Hearing and watching these two kids gave me joy. If at such a young age, they think about ahimsa so minutely and at such a micro-level, these kids when they grow up will not waver. Unfortunately, daily I see many grown up men and women raised in strict orthodox Jain families but without any logical grounding in ahimsa. As a result, they get blown away from ahimsa at the very first temptation or situation. What we need in the Jain community is the strong and logical teaching of ahimsa at every level.
REFUSAL TO RIDE AN ELEPHANT
In the same line of grounding in ahimsa, my own daughter, on a visit to Jaipur from the US (where she has lived for the last forty-eight years), refused to take a joyride on an elephant up to the Amer Palace because of the torture and cruelty that is generally meted out by mahouts to the elephant.
CONCERN FOR CRUELTY TO THE HORSE
We have been conducting an International Summer School for Jain Academic Studies (ISSJS) since 2005. ISSJS is meant for full time faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from any foreign university. The participants go to India during summer for four to eight weeks for experiential based study of Jainism.
In the very first session of the International School for Jain Studies, in 2005, a graduate student named Sarah Hadmack, from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, attended this school. One week of the ISSJS was conducted at the campus of the Jain Vishwa Bharati University (JVB) in Ladnun, Rajasthan. The JVB campus is located on the outskirts of the City of Ladnun.
One day in the evening, ISSJS organized a field trip to a very old and historical Jain temple, which was dug out of the ground several hundred years ago. This temple is located in the heart
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
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