Bhagavana Mahavira and his Relevance in Modern Times

Author(s): Narendra Bhanavat, Prem Suman Jain, V P Bhatt
Publisher: Akhil Bharat Varshiya Sadhumargi Jain Sangh

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Mahāvira's Non-violence in Modern Scientific Age
in daily social transactions or dealings with others, avoiding theft of others' property and by following rule of temperance in sexual enjoyment and hoarding of property. As a healer of social and moral ills, he prescribed a stricter and higher dose of ethical medicine for the spiritual health of Monks and Nuns by pointing out the supreme theme of Liberation or final Release from ignorance and from passions of the world's general illusion or Māyā. Our desires and passions serve as fuel to the fire of our attachment to the worldly life and therefore the Jain concept of Nirvana suggests that we have to withdraw the fuel to quench the everhurning Fire of worldly attachment. As sin is the result of our ignorance Lord Mahāvīra condemned the sin more than the sinner, who is sympathetically sought to be improved by following his teachings. As his teaching significantly aims at transforming an impure, false, unholy life into a simple, pure and healthy one, no scientist, having any real regard for truth and purity can find fault with it. So Mahāvīra's teaching containing the very concentrated essence of human wisdom can serve as an eyeopener to a modern scientist who perchance is likely to misuse the power of his developed scietific intellect, unless the same is harnessed with the higher qualities latent in his heart.
Lord Mahāvīrā's Doctrine of Non-violence is practical and rational in its application in as much as it forbids only avoidable and intentional injury to any creature, as our very life cannot be sustained without breathing or following some avocation or other in which unintentional injury to some invisible insects or germs may be inescapable. Mahatma Gandhi, himself a great exponent of the Rule of Non-violence, observes “Rationalism is a hideous monster, when it claims for itself omnipotence. Omnipotence cannot be attribuied to human reason." In the name of modern scientific progress, intellect is fed too much at the cost of human heart, the real repository of all hidden higher qualities, which in their essence signify the real purpose and meaning of human existence.
Rule of Non-violence for Peace and Happiness?
Lord Mahāvīra, with his prophetic vision and insight, knew that the sense of fear in one form or other is ever haunting or shadowing a man's or woman's earthly life from cradle to the grave. If one is panicky of losing his dear and near ones, another is awfully
afraid of losing his property or the very source of his bread if not of