Ahimsa Crisis You Decide

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

Page 67

HIMSA (VIOLENCE)
TO SELF
TO OTHERS
TO HUMANS ||TO NON-HUMANS
TO ALL JIVAS/ CREATURES
HOW HIMSA (VIOLENCE) AFFECTS SELF AND OTHER LIVING BEINGS Ahimsa is not only the supreme religion or virtue but is also the only motto or identity of a spiritual person. Without the practice of ahimsa, one cannot be a practitioner of spirituality.
The one who follows ahimsa (including householders and mendicants, sadhu, sadhvi, shravak and shravika) is called ahimsak. An ahimsak not only believes in ahimsa but also actively and proactively practices and lives by ahimsa in his daily living, moment by moment. Some form of himsa in life is unavoidable. But an ahimsak is always mindful, practices ahimsa with utmost care and due diligence, and strives to find an alternative to minimize himsa continuously, in all circumstances and ways. For an ahimsak, ahimsa is the only way of life and he constantly strives to avoid harm to any living being by thoughts, speech, or actions. Such a code of conduct can then be called the Ahimsak Way of Life, or AWOL. All jivas (life forms) have in common four essential traits; these include: hunger, reproduction, sleep, and fear. Only humans have the freedom to make a choice of what kind of food to eat (with minimum of himsa) or what kinds of clothing to wear (again, with minmimum of himsa). All nonhuman life forms (jivas who have from one sense up to five senses) don't have as much freedom of choice. They operate in these four essential areas based on natural instinct and need.
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
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