Ahimsa Crisis You Decide

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

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adornments. An “Ahimsak Way of Life” (AWOL) practitioner strives to practice ahimsa in everything, consistently, both inside and outside the temple or place of worship. The bottom-line message of this book is to encourage the reader to become and live as an ahimsak—this is something to which we all must aspire. I am not at all saying that being a practitioner of ahimsa only up to the level of thali is bad, but we should not stop there. We all must go beyond thali. Living an ahimsak way of life, I submit, is practical and also truly Jain. In this book, I have also emphasized the phrase "you decide,"? quite repeatedly. Here, I am not at all defining or laying down a code of conduct for each and every Jain to follow. On the contrary, the practice of ahimsa and the extent to which one follows it is always an individual choice that depends upon one's own circumstances, place, time, and geography. That is why I have used the phrase "you decide” to emphasize that it is your choice and not someone else's absolute dictum. I am compelled to write this book because I feel that the practice of ahimsa is slipping within the Jain community. We must take hold of ahimsa again and help the philosophy and practice of ahimsa to flourish everywhere —within Jainism and beyond —to the wider world. That way, we will have many Mahatma Gandhis all around us!
A few final words of introduction: Please note that most of my reflections are about himsa committed by human beings to other human beings as well as to other five-sensed nonhumans. Only a small portion of my stories in this book pertain to creatures that have fewer than five senses. Please note that this book is not intended to be an academic work. It is simply a narrative by one individual with inquisitive eyes and a reflective mind. For the sake of simplicity I will use the words “he," "him," and “his” rather than “he/she” and “his/her” but keep in mind that I mean both men and women.
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
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