Ahimsa the Ultimate Winner

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

Page 66

(India) in the year 1999 has borne the brunt of the gruesome tragedy by expressing her emotions very beautifully as follows:
"Experience forgiveness & forgive others. Grace is
available. Orice you forgive, there will be healing."
Some 25 years ago, I spent a morning with Mother Teresa in Kathmandu (Nepal) when I accompanied her to an old persons home located next to the highly revered Pashupatinath Temple. Mother Teresa went to each dying person and attended to him with a gesture of love, emotion of affection and an approach of caring and sharing. I saw a flicker of smile on the old man's face. It was momentary. Mother Teresa said, “Look Ambassador Jain, I feel so happy, because I have sought, through nursing and care, forgiveness from this person who has gone through a lot of suffering and unhappiness and whom his family members have left unattended near this holy temple. He will now die with a smile. This would be the victory of love and would symbolize how compassion, which is at the heart of the feeling of forgiveness, can remove bitterness born out of injustice, neglect and inhumanity.
In Jain philosophy, Kshama has been put at the highest step level for scaling the summit of the culture of Ahimsa. Jain scriptures have expressed it in a very deep and multi-layered perspective:
"I forgive all souls, let all souls forgive me. I harbour
friendly feelings for all. I have animosity towards none."
Forgiveness starts with oneself. One has to be honest and open with ones inner - self. A feeling needs to be developed as a conviction that on the brink of doing anything wrong or causing hurt to others, a feeling must arise that “If I were to do this, say this or intend doing it, I would not be able to forgive myself.” This is the preventive aspect of the virtue of forgiveness. The emotion of Kshama rising in our conscience cleanses our mind and heart of “Maya" (illusions), attachment to material bondages, greed, ego and envy and jealousy.
Ahimsa: The Ultimate Winner
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