Ahimsa the Science of Peace

Author(s): Surendra Bothra
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 28

In the present day world, with religion getting separated from daily life and, spreading commercialisation, killing has increased many-fold and sensitivity to life, whether animal or human, has declined in proportion. The need, therefore, is that this trend should be reversed and man should be made more humane not only in relation to man but also for other living creatures. With personal commitment to Ahimsa and personal transformation of individual, the real remedy to violence would be found.
One of the major problems with many of the protest groups trying to fight against violence at national and international levels is that personally they are not non-violent. One of the reasons why Gandhiji also could not succeed was that a large number of his followers were wanting to be non violent at the social level but were violent at the personal level. On 15th August 1947, Gandhiji was the most disillusioned man in this world because his emphasis on purity of personal conduct as a precondition for purity of social conduct was not heeded by his own followers.
As mentioned earlier, part of Himsa grows from acquisitiveness. Jainism does not subscribe to forced poverty but suggests that wants should be minimised voluntarily and there should be no grabbing at any level. Many economic systems today are based only on promoting wants rather than curbing them. This is having disastrous results. One of them is that we are exhausting the non-replenishable resources of this world; another is that material goods and money are becoming the measures of man. Internationally, this spirit is leading to regional and world conflicts. Here again, the start would have to be made from the individual and his mind would have to be changed.
AHIMSA: THE SCIENCE OF PEACE XXI