Ahimsa the Ultimate Winner

Author(s): N P Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 43

Indiscriminate deforestation, pollution of air, rivers, lakes and oceans has upset the natural balance. Major river systems in India have become giant sewers for the country's urban population. Depletion of ozone layer threatens harmful global warming and climatic change.
These are only tips in the iceberg. If ecological degradation is not checked, it could create a paradoxical situation in which human beings would be moving towards their own extinction. If mighty dinosaurs have been extinguished after flourishing on earth for 100 million years, where are we the human species who have been on earth for only about a million years?
Time has come for spiritual awakening both at the individual as well as collective levels. Nothing is more urgent and pressing than to bring home the realization among all the constituents of human race that non-violence is the only answer to longevity of healthy ecology and the survival of the web of life entwined with it.
The voice of reason must be reinforced with the voice of faith. No one will come to our help. At individual and collective society levels, we must build our inner moral fiber and seize the initiative to enrich and upgrade our life ethics. Mahavir used to say in his sermons that you have to work for your salvation in this life and beyond it yourself. It would be a folly to depend upon the mercy of others.
I recall the story of a newly anointed Pope in this connection.
After a troubled day of problems, the new Pope had a disturbed night full of dreams. In each dream when a problem came up he solved it by saying I will refer it to the Pope. When he woke up the next morning he realized that he was himself the Pope and the buck stopped with him.
Mahavir and his 23 other predecessors - Jain Tirthankaras have shown us the way of how an ordinary mortal could achieve omniscience, bliss and Godhood through self-reliant and wideawake soul energy and power and a heart flowing with love, friendliness and compassion for all.
Ahimsa: The Ultimate Winner
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