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of the City of Ladnun. A mini bus took them to this temple. While the group was at the temple, suddenly there was a heavy cloudburst which created lots of deep water everywhere and the city lost electricity too. Darkness fell all around. Due to too much deep water on the road, it was not possible to bring them back to JVB campus by mini bus for fear of the bus stalling in deep water. Therefore, the ISSJS organizers arranged for a few horse drawn tongas (carriages) to bring the group home (to JVB campus). Sarah Hadmack was in one of the carriages. For the carriage to move through this deep puddle of water, the driver of the carriage was constantly torturing the horse with a sharp nail forced into its skin; the driver was using pain to force the horse and carriage move forward. Sarah saw all this and realized the himsa to this poor creature. Immediately, she got down from the carriage, in deep water all around her, and refused to go further in that tonga. She walked all the way to JVB on foot, not caring how much she herself suffered. Even to many Jains present, this was an eye opening experience; they had become generally indifferent to such treatment to animals. Sarah wrote of this account in her daily blog to her mother. Bravo, Sarah. This is compassion.
CONCERN FOR AHIMSA IN DELIVERING JUSTICE Several years ago, I was a guest in Bhopal, India at the house of Mr. Suresh Jain IAS, a very prominent activist and leader of the Jain community not only in Bhopal, but in the whole of India. His wife; Mrs. Vimla Jain was at that time a Session Judge (later she became a Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court). During our discussions, I observed to Mrs. Jain that during her judicial duties, she must have awarded death sentences several times to convicted criminals and wondered how she as a Jain handles such decisions. I asked her what resultant thoughts and emotions she experienced while writing such decisions with her own hands.
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
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