________________
11. Collaborate with like-minded ahimsak organizations and
groups world over. 12. Establish recognition and awards for exemplary and
exceptional work and the demonstrable practice of
ahimsa. 13. Individuals communities should become watch dog
groups about ahimsa and should not give honors to those
who break the cardinal principle of ahimsa. 14. Establish full-fledged year round centers that conduct and
share research in today's needs for ahimsa, and impart teaching and training and monitor its progress.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN TO US? Jainism has the right message for the present time. Prof. John Koller of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute states, “Perhaps the greatest contributions to Indian life were made by Jain exemplars of moral virtue and careful reasoning. Their migration from the Ganges Valley to the southern tip and over the western borders of the subcontinent allowed them to spread the best of Indian culture to these parts of India through their exemplary lives. Jain adherents to the rule of non-injuring has been a major factor in the importance that this moral principle has assumed in Buddhist and Hindu life over the centuries. Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu saint whose adherence to non-injuring in his successful efforts to throw off the yokes of British colonial rule, bringing the principle of nonviolence to the admiring attention of the whole world, gratefully acknowledged the great impression made on him by the virtuous Jains he knew as a youth.” On May 7, 2014, Professor Philip Clayton (former Dean and Provost at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Lincoln University in Claremont California wrote; “Dear Friends, In a few minutes I will be teaching this beautiful article on Jainism and Ecology, “views of nature, nonviolence, and vegetarianism," by Michael Tobias, first published in Mary
308
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide