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2015 JAINA Convention
Jainism World of Non-Violence
Ahimsa. Man needs to understand that there can be multiple ways or perceptions to arrive at a common solution and his way need not be forced upon another.
The true meaning of Ahimsa is not merely a vow to be non- volent. It can be seen another way. It can be seen as a pure acknowledgement of what it means to be alive. The real vow of non-violence is not, "I will never kill. It is, "Whatsoever I must take I am going to give back." This strong statement can be interpreted on a couple different levels
The first level, although still profound, is the simpler of the two. It says, for everything we take from the earth, for every Small death, we give back. We grow trees, keep away from killing in all possible ways, and try not to disturb life. It also means mot using more than we have to protecting species and ecosystems from human disaster and extinction, and recognizing what we use and where it comes from
As one can see, violence isn't always obvious. Most of the time it's a very subtle culprit. It comes in the subtle form of communication like "us" and "them", in our facial expressions, thoughts & beliefs, in the tone of our voices in the consumption of animals and much more. Of course for this to make any sense we must believe that all life is sacred deserves our respect and care, night down to the smallest molecule
On a deeper level, the meaning of "whatsoever I must take I am going to give back as a little more complex. It extends even to our own deaths. It is the acceptance of the fact that eventually, we, too, must give back the life we have been given. How can we take life for granted anymore?
INTERPRETATION OF AHIMSA by Acharya Shri Chandanaji Tn its most literal form Ahimsa is a Sanskrit term Peace or Equilibrium I meaning non-violence, mon-aggression, non-cruelty peacefulness or the evasion of violent behavior in our time and again Great Souls "Tirthankaras" or Great thoughts, communication and action. Even though Ahimsa Saints came by and propagated the concept of self-control, is considered by many as an ultimate path to peace, it is whach would lead to non violence in action and ultimately a demanding path to follow. It involves enormous mental bring human beings at peace. It is the tendency of life in strength and courage and eradication of one's inherent the entire universe to be at equilibrium. A disturbance inborn instincts. This undoubtedly makes a challenging task in the balance leads to catastrophes & disruption in the for even the most intelligent creature on the planet.
circle of life. For human, on one hand disruption meant
hunger, homelessness, diseases and un-timely death on the In order to truly understand Ahimsa and the difficulties faced other hand peace meant, nourishment, stability and flow during its adoption and practice, one needs to understand of insight. At least Man in its pragmatic self very well the basic human psyche and the stages of its evolution. In understands that violence occurs only when Man's Greed the most recent of history, Man (Homo sapiens) can trace its surpasses his Nead. His greed for absolution in form of his ancestry to the hominids (or "great apes) within the animal unending thirst for respect, wealth and power leads to the kingdom As Man progressed from being in its wild self in most agonizing forms of violence the jungles of Africa to a more civilized form of life, it left hehind a lot of animalistic practices. However, human gene Ahimsa is at core of Jainism and its philosophy. It is the carried with itself certain basic animal tendencies of greed most pure form of idea which revolves around being at anger and violence which came in handy at the time of its equilibrium and attaining the real wealth in the universe survival. Coupled with its ever widening pool of knowledge ie true knowledge of the purpose of our existence. and command over its instincts, Man was now able to contain its animal instincts and release them as and when What is AHIMSA? need arise. Even though Man accumulated several peaceful trants in its path to evolution, power of his brain made his This is something we all inherently know, but don't anual instinct even sharper, cruel and violent
always openly talk about or practice. Living involves
death. Everything we do involves death in it. When we eat Unlike animals, Man now used his brain to suppress the breath, move, work in our gardens, or clean our homes, we weakling and prolong violence for a much longer duration engage in killing. To be in denial of this fact, is to be afraid Most common example of his violent instinct came in of truth of life. the form of subjugation or slavery. Formation of society soon led to creation of castes and religions. They became While this reality isn't the most pleasant to think about the most common weapons of dividing Man on the basis it none-the-less exists. Instead of denying it, we embrace of his or her beliefs. And once the beliefs were threatened it. In fact, only when we understand the reality of death violence erupted Mentally superior species slaved and can we really practice ahimsa, because then, we have no tortured the weaker ones Last 2000 years Man has faced choice but to live in undying gratitude. We begin to know a lot of periodic violence in form of Great Wars. However, what a precious gift life is we see that life comes to each evolution of Human mind has also led him to understand the of us through an endless web of large and small deaths negative effects of Violence and positive effects of being at
Isn't it interesting bow war is used to create peace as if somehow peace can be created through violence? The Indian mystic Osho said, "...and all politicians go on talking whout peace they prepare for war and they talk of peace. In fact they say. We are preparing for warto preserve peace." Most irrational! If you are preparing for war, how can you preserve peace? To preserve peace one should prepare for peace." The great words of Bhagwan Mahavir, who said, "If you kill someone, it is yourself you kill. If you torment someone, it is yourself you torment. If you harm someone, it is yourself you harm." In other words, Instead of overpowering others we must overpower our animal instincts and ego.
Whatever I must take I am going to give back" is true ahamsa. It means we recognize to live carefully consciously. compassionately, and gratefully. We live in a way, which acknowledges we share this planet with many other lives, and everything we do on it has consequences. Then, we take from life humbly, and do not ask for what we cannot tepay
Paradigms of Violence and how can we replace it with Ahimsa!
There is violence occurring everywhere. When there is a feeling of superiority and the tendency to suppress the other, violence erupts. On the contrary, when we reach out with caring and compassion to those who seem and act different than us and respect their beliefs and prachees peace emerges. Man needs to understand that there is enough space in this world for conflicting thoughts to peacefully exist. This brings us to another important principle of "Anekantawada" or Multitudes of Opinion Anekantawada is the most critical of elements, which can be used to enforce
"Nonviolence does not mean that we remain unresponsive to a problem. On the contrary, it is important to be
fully engaged by searching for non-violent means to a problem. Key is that we must perform in a way that does not benefit us alone. We must not harm the interests of others. Nonviolence therefore is not merely the absence of violence. It involves a sense of compassion and caring for others feelings and beliefs. I strongly believe that we must promote such a concept of nonviolence at the level of the family as well as at the national and international levels. Each individual has the ability to contribute to such compassionate nonviolence,
How should we go about this? We can start with ourselves
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