________________
APRIL, 1990
The operation of ahimsa is not confined to the unperceived Kingdom of spirit, the Kingdom within, so to speak. It extends equally to the outside world. Ahimsa will purify, ennoble and sweeten life in all departments and establish brotherly relations among men and communities and nations, as surely as it will purge the heart of all evil inclinations and traits. For ahimsă is love, and nothing but love. Those alone can be expected to live upto ahimsa who are actuated by pure love for others.
157
Love and hatred are the two principles on which people act in their dealings with others. Friendship, goodwill, mutual esteem and an abiding sense of the unity of interests result on the path of love. Fear is destroyed, along with distrust and misunderstandings.
Hatred leads to opposite kinds of results; misunderstandings increase, and distrust is the prevailing characteristic. Hatred is the cause of all quarrels and wars.
Where love would unite, hatred would separate and antagonize. If you wish to live peacefully with the world you should follow the line of love. It may be that at times gain seems to lie in the grasp of the nation that is ready to help itself at the cost of others; but the taint of selfishness is sure to contaminate the national conscience, and bear fruit, in due course of time, however tardily it may be.
To the nations of the world Jainism proclaims with the voice of thunder today: Come brethren forget your enmities and your hatreds; embrace one another like brothers; you don't need to shed each other's blood. Away with the armies and with your armaments! Men are already groaning under the burdens of taxation, and will perish before you know where you stand. Learn to live by ahimsa, and love one another. You shall not need to arm yourself to the teeth any more. Do you think armies and warlike equipments can afford anything like real protection to you? Look at the fate to the great white Czar of all the Russians! He was slain by his own helpless peasants who only a few days before dared not stand in his august presence without trembling; Gone is the Kaiser too, who was the lord of mighty armies!
The surest means of safety is love, and nothing but love! But it must be an emotion of the heart-a real live sentiment that stirs us constantly to action-not a mere wordy avowal. Where love reigns, there is no room for fear. The science of modern politics is at war with the Science of Peace, and has led us into trouble and the difficulties which the statesmen are unable to solve satisfactorily because of their selfish
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
