Atma Dharma

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

Page 10

3
If we now turn away from humanity to look at animals, birds and the like, it will be observed that they also desire peace and happiness; none of them likes hunger, thirst, excessive heat and cold, ill-treatment, harsh speech and ill health; nor is there an animal that regards himself as happy when in distress, trouble, pain, worry or grief. Fear and worry are not liked by any one either. It may be that the animals are not able to express their feelings to us on account of their inability to speak; but it is certain that peace and joy are as dear to them as they are to human beings.
Even petty insects that are too small to be easily visible, feel happy when left to themselves. It is a matter of observation that when one disturbs one of these tiny creatures with one's finger, it runs about here and there in evident distress. This shows that it is then agitated with a sense of danger for its tiny life. We also observe that the cessation of fear is accompanied by peace and tranquillity on the part of the insect, and are entitled to infer from this that it is comparatively happier now that it is left undisturbed. The fact is that fear, anger and other such passions operate as causes of misery even in the case of those that stand so low in the scale of life; so that the greater the influence of these