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Gommates vara Commemoration Volume
hundred-fold. We may go a step further and declare with, Gandhi, that Ahimsā - Nonviolence - Love alone can now save humanity from mutual annihilation
Before trying to trace and gauge the present dimension of Ahimsā and its adoption and operation in our lives, let me explain what I mean by Ahimsā Culture in the present context. Culture is a comprehensive word and it includes religion, philosophy, literature, arts, crafts, customs, usages and so on of a people. Ahimsa Culture would mean that culture which is imbued with and takes its inspiration from Ahiisā with all its implications in its present dimension.
Similarly I would like to say what I mean by human evolution in the present context. It is not biological evolution. Neither is it only individual evolution as a human being to his highest capacity. Human evolution here means, the evolution of not merely individuals but the evolution of human society, of the whole of the human family in terms of the human awakened consciousness.
Man has no doubt a material body, a life-force animating it and a functioning brain which is an instrument of his consciousness. He is now conscious of his consciousness, that is, he is highly self-conscious. Further, he has developed the faculty of reasoning and a conscience, which acts as a discriminatory power or as a judgement seat. So, man cannot only be a mere witness unto himself, but he has the power to choose between alternatives of thought as well as of action. In this sense, he is the master of his own destiny. What is the meaning of human evolution?
Now how does man's consciousness work? What are its dimensions ? (a) The horizontal dimension of man's consciousness consists in gathering information and knowledge of the world of matter, life and mind, their laws and working, by means of the power of his own senses and thinking; (b) the demension in depth of man's consciousness consists in turning his probe inwards to find out the root of his own being; and (c) the third, which is the vertical dimension, consists in trying to rise higher and higher as per an inner urge and aspiration, to reach the acme of consciousness where peace, harmony, spontaneous joy are blissfully supreme. A balanced progress in all these dimensions and on all cultural fronts already mentioned, spell the real evolution of human beings, both as individuals and as man-in-society.
I have stated so far, what was originally meant by the expression Ahimsa, I have also said that culture includes all human activities, all human thought as well as the shape given to it in the form of actions. I have delineated my idea of human evolution also.
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