Ahimsa the Science of Peace

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

Page 93

ing mass of flesh and blood; it is the only physical entity that is conscious of its own existence. It is the source of thoughts, feelings, dreams, emotions, ideas, imagination etc. and has an astonishing capacity to communicate or put into action all these abstracts with miraculous clarity.
The human mind is a sponge that absorbs all available information. It is a mighty computer that processes and stores all this information. It is an individual who creates and exerts its own influence. It is affected by a variety of outside forces and in turn it also influences these outside forces. It is connected with the remote past as well as the faraway future through its history, and the science of genetics. According to the Jains the links with past and future are due to karmic bondage. The mind is both master as well as slave of the body it lives in.
It is the information received through physical senses that assists mind in its functioning. The mind survives and grows on a continuous flow of information. Information is for brain what food is for body, a perpetual necessity for sustenance and growth. This continuous flow of information is sorted out, classified and stored as knowledge in the ever-expanding vault of our brain. Neither the smell of food is simple enough to be left out nor the twinkling of the faraway galaxies complicated enough to be beyond our capacity.
Over and above this infinite capacity and craving for knowledge, we have been endowed with voice and hands to translate knowledge into action. The progress from the wheel to space flight is but an insignificant example.
The mind manifests through the body. The interdependence of mind and body is almost complete. The mind gets majority of information through the body and the body is AHIMSA: THE SCIENCE OF PEACE 50