Ahimsa Crisis You Decide

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

Page 79

net eating their food. He realizes what is going to happen to these birds. So he blows his whistle to save them; the birds are kept from being caught, and they all fly away.
Let us examine the bhaava, or mental intentions and actions of both the butcher and the ahimsak.
If we look at the butcher at the moment when the birds are hungry, he is doing nothing more than feeding them. He has not yet harmed them in any way. His physical action is that of compassion. However, his real intention is to catch and kill them. Here, his intention is bad but his action at that very moment is good.
Now, let us look at the ahimsak /compassionate person. By blowing his whistle, he deprived the hungry birds of their food. His physical action is of harm, or himsa, but his real intention is to save the lives of the birds.
Here the butcher is guilty of serious himsa, both from the perspective of the law of karma and according to society's legal code, for his bad intention in planning the murder. On the other hand, the compassionate person has committed very little himsa, as his intentions are good.
Let us look at the same concept in another example from our daily life. A knife with sharp edges can be used to wound a person when it is in the hands of a robber or murderer. But the same knife can be used to save the life of a person when it is in the hands of a surgeon. The knife is the same but the users' intentions and their actions are polar opposites. In both cases, the actions involve cutting and making a person bleed, but the robber intends to kill, while the surgeon tries to save life.
In both examples, the intension is the most important factor and so the results - reward or punishment - are different. The same principle applies in real life when justice is dispensed by the courts of law. Many a time, one is declared guilty of the crime based on the intention of the doer rather than by the action itself.
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
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