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first few decades of the next century. There are chances that almost one third of all species that exist today will be lost. We would not have come to this point of degeneration had we been a little cautious and practiced Ahimsa conduct.
The so-called energy crisis is another burning problem facing human society. One factor that may be helpful is energy conservation or its restrained use. For those indoctriRated in the Ahimsa way of life conservation comes naturally. A society practicing restraint in all its activities, so that no harm comes to others, consumes energy only to the extent that is minimally essential. There is no extravagance or waste due to neglect and carelessness.
The energy crisis and maintaining the ecology are connected problems. In our greed for wealth and power we continue to exploit nature at every step in our technological progress. In our egotistic pursuit to harness and improve upon nature, we have disturbed it with a blind eye toward the grave consequences future human society will have to face.
Taking care not to disturb ecology, so that the coming generations do not face the peril of destruction caused by a ravaged and hostile land, was and is a necessary part of behaviour in almost every society. The Jains, however, have put that social practice into scientific and philosophical terms. With the advent and expanse of industrial culture and terriiorial competition, all such values have been lost to selfish pursuits, which, in Jain terms, is violence.
Even people as remote and supposedly primitive as the Bushmen of Africa had a very sound tradition for protecting ecology. They would not dig two roots from the same place. They would not take all eggs from one ostrich nest. The norm was that one must always walk past one before dig
AHIMSA: THE SCIENCE OF PEACE 0113
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