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SEKHAR: "GIVE AWAY VIOLENCE, PRESERVE LIFE"
which almost negates the other or, at the most, have nothing to do with the other. Such an attitude does not lead one to a healthy encounter. It sabotages seriousness in mutual learning and relationship. To the extent one affirms one's own faith or ideology to be the only truth there is not much of an opening to healthy encounters. Fundamentalism is a form of closure. The eyes are turned inside and there is a refusal to see the world at large.
Prof. Amaladoss' points out that fundamentalism can go to the extent of creating a state religion. It is seen wide spread in the world today. While fundamentalism often refers to religious fundamentalism, it is also seen in other spheres of life like politics where political ideologies do not make easy way to encounter the rest. Today interreligious or even inter-political dialogue is useful and necessary not merely to come to know the other better and to dispel prejudices, etc. but also for a healthy collaboration between religious communities and political parties in order to promote common humanity based on justice and freedom.
3. Evil and its root cause
Indian philosophical and religious traditions have reflected on the causes of such a situation and have also offered suitable remedies. Nirvāņa or Mokṣa is a stage of life where one experiences cessation from pain, from birth, from ignorance, from karma, etc. Religious scriptures affirm that liberation is a state of good after overcoming evil. Now one cannot find solution to evil unless one is aware of the root cause for it.
The root cause of all evil according to Jaina and Buddhist traditions is violence to life (himsā). According to the Jaina tradition, ignorance (abodhi) and carelessness (pramāda) cause violence. Ignorance is with respect to right knowledge, right vision and right conduct and carelessness is by way of certain types of activities, like alcohol, sensual pleasures, the passions, sleep and unprofitable conversation. Hence Mahāvīra, the propagator of Jainism, preached discrimination (viveka) and renunciation (vairāgya).
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Buddhism too acknowledges that it is the passionate heart, which is the primary cause of evil. Many Buddhist schools of thought like
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M. Amaladoss, Making all things new (Mission in Dialogue), Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Anand, 1990, pp. 140-41.
R. Williams, Jaina Yoga, London Oriental Series, 14, London, 1963, p. 230-231.
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