Ahimsa Crisis You Decide

Author(s): Sulekh C Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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And the low soul gropes the low.
And in between, on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth a high way and a low; And every man decideth the way his soul shall go.
Truly a vast range of responses is open to us. The "high souls," sadhus and mahatmas, renounce personal and bodily desires to a remarkable extent. Others, seduced by the comforts of wealth, seem to lose all sight of the needs of others, focusing increasingly on themselves. Most of us "drift to and fro" somewhere in between, inspired by the ideal of ahimsa but taking only baby steps in that direction.
As the Taoist sage Lao Tzu wrote, "He who controls himself controls the world." If you want to know the spiritual maturity of a country, culture, or age, ask about where its people are along the path toward ahimsa and in which direction they are moving. As are the people, so also is the age.
Dr. Sulekh Jain writes with the wisdom of one who has traveled the world and observed the lives of its inhabitants over some eight decades. He sees much that is encouraging, and in these pages he shares inspiring stories that will bring tears to your eyes. But Dr. Jain also recognizes tendencies in our age-in India as well as in the West-that are deeply troubling. Above all else, he sees, the spiritual malaise of our age is reflected in the myriad forms of violence (himsa) that we inflict on other living beings in both blatant and subtle ways.
The book in your hands burns with a message of hope. The spiritual traditions of the world offer at their core a common call to compassion. Among them all, one in particular offers wise council to men and women in a world addicted to violence. The ancient Jain tradition, more clearly than any other tradition in humanity's history, has placed the practice of doing no harm, ahimsa, at the very center of attention. Through the ages monks and nuns, but also ordinary Jain men and women, have learned to recognize the roots of violence in their thought and action and, becoming enlightened, to take
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An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide