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A man is driving a car. Suddenly a child runs to cross the road. The driver tries to avoid an accident but the car hits the child and it dies.
A bandit sees a passerby on a forlorn path. He attacks the person with an intention to rob or for some old animosity. The passerby tries to defend him-self and the bandit stabs him with a knife. The poor man dies.
All the three are apprehended and presented before a magistrate All the three are straightforward cases of manslaughter and the punishment is death penalty. But in spite of the same consequences the magistrate, in his judgements, does not award same punishment for these actions. He considers the intentions and feelings of the three from legal viewpoint and awards judgement accordingly. As the intention of the surgeon was not to kill the patient but to save him, he was found not guilty and was honourably released. The intention of the driver was also to save the child and not to kill him, but as the child was killed due to his negligence he was sentenced to a six-month imprisonment. However, the bandit had all the wrong motives and he killed the passerby intentionally; he was given a death sentence by the magistrate.
This means that the result is not based on action but on attitude. If the thoughts are filled with anger, conceit, deceit, selfishness, attachment, aversion, etc. the inspired actions will be termed as himsā or violence irrespective of their having been done in the name of altruism or on some pretext of being instrumental in attaining heaven or liberation. If there is a purity of attitude and the intent is of protecting against a harsh looking or apparently violent action will be called ahimsä. For example, a mother gets angry on her child and reprimands as well but because of her feelings of affection and well being of the child her anger and reprimand cannot be called violence. There is another example. A sage was sitting in meditation in a jungle. A lion saw him, roared and pounced to kill and eat him. At that moment a wild boar saw this and in order to save the sage attacked the lion and tore its belly with its pointed molars. Even in his death throes the lion pierced the vitals of the boar. Both the lion and the boar died. The lion reincarnated in hell and the boar in heaven as a god. This was because there was cruelty in the attitude of the lion and a feeling of offering
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