Book Title: Introduction to Jainism and its Culture
Author(s): Balbhadra Jain
Publisher: Kundkund Gyanpith Indore

Previous | Next

Page 126
________________ ABANDONING THE MEANS OF VIOLENCE Ahimsa can be accomplished only by non-violent ways and means. For practice of ahimsā it is essential to abandon equipment and areas of violence. Weapons or arms and ammunitions are equipment of violence. To own these or indulge in trading and manufacturing of these or any other allied activity foment violence. Majority of incidents of violence are committed using these weapons. Besides territorial ambition another important cause of wars is the production and marketing of arms and ammunitions. In order to sell their produce, powerful nations instigate situations of war and then sell equipment of war at their own price. Put in a corner the other nations purchase these things at inflated prices. If they still fail to reach their sales targets, the powerful nations attack other countries on some pretext or instigate other country and their allies to declare war on some country. To day even war has become a business. Therefore, in order to establish peace it is essential to ban production and stockpiling of arms and ammunitions. These weapons also contribute to personal antagonism and vendetta. In order to further the goal of ahimsa it is also necessary to curb the areas or places of violence. Some examples are - slaughter-houses, poultry farms, fishery, leather industry, shoe-shops, trading of meat and wine, export of monkeys, silk industry, producing medicines of animal origin, domestication of carnivores like tiger, bear, dogs, etc. All these are merely symbolic. In fact, it is essential to abandon all those activities where direct violence is involved because violence gets ingrained due to indulgence in these activities. WHY REJECT VIOLENCE? No being desires misery, no being desires death. All beings are afraid of misery, all beings are afraid of death. Others also dislike the thing that we dislike. Others also dislike in me what I dislike in others. Therefore, the act or behaviour that annoys or offends some being is violence. Therefore, that should be avoided." However, it is surprising that how a person unable to tolerate the pain of a thorn in his flesh does stab others with a knife20; how does he injure others with a bullet or some other weapon? Jain Education International 109 For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334