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Carl Sagan, the renowned American scientist summed it up succinctly. About Jain view of Non - Violence.
"There is no right to life in any society on earth today nor has there been at any time with a few rare exceptions such as the Jains of India."
Romain Rolland has thoughtfully observed in this context that the sages who discovered the law of non-violence in the midst of violence, were greater geniuses than Newton and greater warriors than Wellington. Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute.
The growing and increasingly terrifying spectre of terrorist violence and cruelty has become a matter of grave concern. Tackling terrorism has been likened by U.S. President George Bush to waging a III World War. However, violence cannot be defeated by more violence. The way out, in the ultimate analysis, is spreading the culture and practice of non-violence. Non-violence in Jain vocabulary is not the mere opposite or negation of violence. It is the point of origin of all good virtues like forgiveness, friendliness, tolerance, self-control, fearlessness. It is the very anti-thesis of ego, anger, envy, hatred, vanity, lust, avarice, hoarding, selfishness, revenge and retaliation. Thus, the Jain doctrine of Ahimsa is relevant for every sphere of human existence for promoting progress with peace, growth with serenity, and happiness with equanimity.
What the world needs today and would need even more tomorrow is increasing global commitment to the culture of non-violence. As Martin Luther King put it aptly:
"The choice is no longer between
Non-violence and violence;
It is between Non-violence and non-existence"
The global relevance of Jainism today lies in the need to bring home to the wider strata of global human society that Ahi s has to become the bedrock of our individual as well as collective survival. Violence only fouls the atmosphere and nurtures more conflict, suspicion, hatred and intolerance. Non-violence has a tremendous potentiality to be the catalyst and the core civilizing principle of the new global order. After all it is only during periods of peace that culture, literature, fine arts, music and other humanities have flourished and taken humanity to elevated levels of sensitivity and appreciation.
Lord Mah vra has very eloquently elucidated the concept of Ahi s Dharma covering thought, conduct and expression. He says:
"I cannot take what I cannot give back. No one can give back life. So no one should take it. In happiness and suffering, in joy or grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.
We should refrain from inflicting upon others such injury, suffering or pain as would be undesirable or unbearable if inflicted upon ourselves. We must endeavour to develop equanimity towards all living beings and elements of nature in this universe." Jain scripture c ra ga, 12/3/63 says:
"The instinct of self-preservation is universal. All beings are fond of life and like pleasure. They hate pain, shun destruction like life, love to live and avoid untimely death. To all life is dear. Hence all breathing, exciting, living sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused nor tormented or driven away."
Mah v ra has also explained the concept of Ahi s in deeper philosophical terms as follows: "There is nothing so small and subtle as the atom nor any element so vast as space. Similarly, there is no quality of soul more subtle than non-violence, and no virtue of spirit greater than reverence for life."
crya Candan j of Vr yatana has interpreted Ahi s thus:
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