Essence of Jainism

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Shuchita Publication Varanasi

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and non-covetousness or possessionlessness. Without the other four, ahimsa is meaningless, Everyone is at liberty to follow this noble path according to his or her capacity and circumstances. An aversion to covetousness, in other words, an ever present wakefulness to keep down one's requirements and possessions, is a primary condition of the ahimsite way of life.
Thus gave Lord Mahavira to the suffering world his noble message of salvation, physical, moral and spiritual, about two thousand and five hundred years ago, and it is still true and practicable.
Mahavira had become poignantly aware of the fact that those in power always try to rob the weak of their happiness as well as of their means to become happy, and that this tendency to exploit is the outcome of a love of one's supposed notions of happiness resulting from bodily enjoyments. Everybody considers his own pleasures and convenience so important that he attaches no value to the
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