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Let us, therefore, be clear. The goal of non-violence is to diminish violence and endeavour to eliminate it. It is by means a passive approach. It provides not only an idealistic but indeed also a pragmatic solution of finding one peaceful way or another of neutralizing those who do major wrongs to others, without adding further forms of violence. If we do that, as Jain philosophy exhorts us to do, hope can be kindled for a more peaceful world.
And so we come to focus on the principal theme of this book. Realization is dawning upon ordinary citizens as well as policy makers all over the world that a lasting victory over violence could only be achieved in the long run by building a non-violent global culture. It is easy enough to kill a militant-spirited, misguided and frenzied terrorist, but it does not prevent two more taking his place. The answer is to win over the terrorists and persuade them to realize that it is futile and frustrating to kill mercilessly. In other words, as the compassionate Jain philosophy (claborately explained in this book) maintains violence cannot be killed. Its spirit has to be extinguished from the hearts and minds of human beings. It can be overcome with strong collective will-power by giving people tension-free environment in which they could smile, relax and become once again creative, courageous, imaginative and tolerant. The moment the perpetrator of violence realizes that in the end he is hurting himself, far more than others he would throw away his violence-outfit.
Kahlil Gibran has made the point poetically and poignantly:
"But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns yellow but with the silent approval of the whole tree, so the wrongdoer cannot be wrong without the hidden will of you all”.
Ahimsa: The Ultimate Winner
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