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Bhagawan Mahavir ]
[ 479
While it checks us from being self-centred it gives us power enough to serve the whole creation; and then enables us to cross the ocean of this world easily.
(h) Jaina Ahimsa does not recognise the superiority of any caste nor does it admit that a man, who is following a right path or doing a right thing, can ever be subject to the anger of the gods.
(i) Although many good qualities have disappeared from India, still we cannot say that Jain Ahimsa was the cause of this, because we find, to the contrary, that even those Indian communities which never believed in Ahimsa, have not got those qualities, nor they ever had.
2. Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest man of this age, on Ahimsa:
The following extract is from the reply made by Mahatma Gandhi to a question asked by Lala Lajpat Rai (The 'Lion of the Punjab') with regard to his principle of Ahimsa, which was published in the "Modern Review" Vol. 20, October, 1916. Mahatma Ji Says:--
"Our Shastras seem to teach that a man, who really practises Ahimsa in its fulness, has the world at his feet. He so affects his surroundings that even the snakes and other venomous reptiles do him no harm. This is said to have been the experience of St. Francis of Assisi.
In its negative form it means not injuring any living being whether by body or mind. I may not, therefore, hurt the person of any wrong-doer or bear any ill-will to him, and so cause him mental suffering. This statement does not cover suffering caused to the wrong doer by natural acts of mine
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