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able resources. At individual level this attitude gives the necessary purity to follow the path of liberation.
The fourth attitude, which is just an extension of the third, is being careful before accepting or giving away a thing by proper examination and curing it, so that no harm is caused to self or others who use it. Once again this attitude also covers a much wider range of things and activities than the traditionally accepted eatables and utensils. It covers almost everything worth mention.
Once a thing is explored for use it has to be carefully examined. If found necessary it should be altered, cured and prepared for use. It is something like cooking food, building and furnishing a house, getting a dress stitched and so on. Once again, the central theme is that the thing or the process involved should not be harmful to self or others.
It appears to be simple and unimportant but when practiced its value is revealed. If anything is used or given for use without proper examination and curing there are chances that it may turn out to be harmful. Looking at it from social viewpoint, we find its application in every day life, although unnoticed till we try to analyze it. The job of inspectors in the department of food and other such departments is nothing but ensuring the application of this attitude. The rules of industrial safety, drugs act, municipal laws etc, also fall under the same category.
The importance of these two attitudes continues to grow with industrial and technological progress. Law enforcement alone is never efficient enough to bring about the required harmony in the society. The law is thrust on the people and there are elements that continue to go against it by inventing ingenious methods of circumventing the law enforcing sys
AHIMSA: THE SCIENCE OF PEACE 065
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