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[The Jain Principle of Ahimsa
which do not proceed from ill-will. It therefore does not prevent me from withdrawing from his presence a child, whom we shall imagine, is about to strike. Indeed the proper practise of Ahimsa requires me to withdraw the intended victim from the wrong doer if I am in any way whatsoever the guardian to such a child.
In its positive form Ahimsa means the largest love, the greatest charity. If I am a follower of Ahimsa, I must love my enemy, I must apply the same rules to the wrong doer who is my enemy or stranger to me as I would to my wrong doing father or son. This active Ahimsa necessarily includes truth and fearlessness. A man cannot deceive the loved one. He does not fear or frighten him or her. ( Gift of life) is the greatest of all gifts. A man who gives it in reality disarms all hostility. He has paved the way for an honourable understanding and none who is himself subject to fear can bestow that gift. He must therefore be himself fearless. A man cannot then practise Ahimsa and be a coward at the same time. The practice of Ahimsa calls forth the greatest courage. It is the most soldierly of soldiers virtues. He is the true soldier who knows to die and stand his ground in the midst of a hail of bullets. Such a one was Ambarisha who stood his ground without lifting a finger, though Durvasa did his worst.
Ahimsa truly understood, is in my humble opinion a panace for all evils mundane and extra-mundane. We can never-do it, just at present we are not doing it at all. Ahimsa does not displace the practice of other virtues but renders their practiee imperatively necessary before it can be practised, even in its rudiments. Lalaji need not fear the Ahimsa
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