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15th Biennial JAINA Convention 2009
Ecology - The Jain Way
NON-VIOLENCE : A WAY OF LIFE Padmashri Kumarpal Desai, PhD Kumarpaladi@gmail.com
planning war strategies. Around the world, there are people who live in a state of fear, terror and insecurity and as nations, we talk and prepare for war. Is the need for non violence not stronger than ever before?
Tirthankar Bhagwan Mahavira's concept of nonDr. Kumarpal Desai is a well known
violence encompassed the universe - human scholar - an author of over 100
beings as well as all other organisms. Cruelty is books and a speaker in international not physical but is innate, inborn. Compassion to forums. He has received several all needs to be practised, he said. awards including the prestigious Padmashri for his outstanding The first mahavrat is non-violence. Tirthankar
services and for having authored Bhagwan Mahavir said, "The one you want to kill books in Gujarati, Hindi and English on Jainism, is your ownself and the one you want to rule over philosophy, and spirituality. As a former Dean of is also your ownself. Therefore a truly enlightened the Faculty of Arts of Gujarat University, he
soul will never think of killing anyone or ruling quided over twenty PhD students in the disciplines over anyone, nor does he cause pain to anyone." of literature, journalism, and Jain philosophy. Dr. Non-violence is the most basic tenet of the Jain Desai is the coordinator of the Institute of religion. It is the very heart of the religion and the Jainology and President of Gujarat Sahitya concept of live and let live' is its cornerstone. As Parishad, the most prestigious literary all beings are equal, it says, everyone should be organization in Gujarat.
able to live happily and with no one causing unhappiness to others. Violence results in the
formation of karma (action). Bad conduct, lying In the past three thousand years of 'civilized' life,
and indulgence are attributes of violence, truth, fifteen thousand wars have taken place. Among all
astey (non-stealing), celibacy and detachment are creatures on earth, human beings are the only attributes of non-violence. Violence is committed beings that choose to kill their own species. Man not only through action but by thought and deed invented guns and bombs to kill his fellow men; a - as the saying goes, "war is born in the heart of single nuclear bomb can wipe out the human race. man". Non-violence in thought is reflected in This reminds one of an incident from the life of anekant (the doctrine of manifold aspects). Maxim Gorky, the Russian writer. He talked to the villagers about the achievements of science. He Non-violence is a way of life; it comes from said : "Science had helped man to fly in space and within. In the oldest book of Jain religion to fathom the depths of oceans. Once, when he Acharang Sutra, it is said that non-violence is a was discoursing on the wonders of science". An
true universal religion. Acharya Shri Umaswatiji old villager retorted saying: "You are right. said. "Parasparopaaraha JivanamÂ"- each living Science has shown us how to fly and how to reach
organism supports another. Mahavira's theory of the bottom of a sea, but has it taught us how to
non-violence encompasses the entire universe and live in peace on this planet?" Gorky had no he had also emphasised the unity of life. answer.
It was after a gap of 2600 years that Mahatma Yet as Jains, Tirthankar Bhagwan Mahavira has Gandhi felt inspired by the same principles of nonblessed us and taught us how to live. We live violence and compassion that Tirthankar Bhagwan today in perpetual danger of war. There are a Mahavira propounded. In August 1946 Mahatma varieties of bombs, each capable of killing stood, unarmed before a violent mob and his hundreds of thousands in one go ! There is a compassion melted their hearts. Mountbatten said stockpile of many nuclear weapons that can , "What a battalion could not have achieved, has decimate the human race in an instant.
been achieved by this frail man and has saved
East part of India from a conflagration." NonViolence has become a way of life and is seen in violence links Mahavira to Mahatma, "as if there each and every act of a being. The media play a was an invisible traffic between Mahavira and negative role in inflaming our passions and Gandhi." providing an impetus to violence. Human kind is As we have stepped into the next century, ravaged by poverty and famine, yet money is everyone has to make non-violence a part of spent on developing new weapons and on
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