Jain Spirit 2001 12 No 09

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 31

non-conformists.
While materialism has brought unparalleled prosperity, 25% of the world's population has appropriated to itself 83% of the world's income, leaving teeming millions all over the world under poverty, deprivation, malnutrition and hunger. Fear, terror and agony have increased the depth of universal suffering. Man's insensitiveness is reflected in the horrifying spectacle of the Taliban army destroying in a violent orgy the towering Bamyan Buddha statues.
"They tire their bones crushing statues and stones But their bluster and din amuses the God within." The cruel, merciless and uninhabited slaughter of animals in slaughterhouses all over the world makes nonsense of the concept of prevention of cruelty to animals. This mentality which can kill thousands of non-human lives in a day - what is then to prevent it from taking the next step from killing thousands of human lives? If we can kill the most helpless, the most voiceless, the most defenceless for our profit, for satisfying our taste buds, what will stop us from sending our sons and daughters to war, rendering ourselves helpless before the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction?
Human encroachment of forests has also been disastrous. Over 5 million hectares of forest are being lost annually. Chopping down tropical forests alone leads to at least 50,000 invertebrate species - about 140 every day - facing extinction.
Pollution of air, rivers, lakes and oceans has upset the natural balance. Fourteen major river systems in India have become giant sewers for the country's urban population. Depletion of ozone layer threatens harmful global warming and climatic change.
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These are only tips of the iceberg. If ecological degradation is not checked, it could create a paradoxical situation in which human beings would be moving towards their own extinction. If mighty dinosaurs have been extinguished after flourishing on earth for 100 million years, where are we the human species who have been on the earth for only about a million years?
"In hapinness or suffering,
in joy or grief, we should
regard all creatures as we
regard our own self."
Time has come for spiritual awakening both at the individual as well as collective levels, armed with courage, non-violence and compassion. Nothing is more urgent and pressing than to bring home the realisation among all the constituents of human race that non-violence is the only answer to longevity of healthy ecology and the survival of the web of life entwined with it.
The voice of reason must be reinforced with the voice of faith. No one will come to our help. At individual and collective society levels, we must build our inner moral fibre and seize the initiative to enrich and upgrade our life ethics. Mahavir used to say in his sermons that you have to work for your salvation in this life and beyond it yourself. It would be a
folly to depend upon the mercy of others.
Mahavir and his 23 predecessors, the Jain Tirthankaras, have shown us the way of how an ordinary mortal could achieve omniscience, bliss and godhood through self-reliant and wide-awake soul energy and power and a heart flowing with love, friendliness and compassion for all.
We have the great example of Mahatma Gandhi who, inspired by Jain philosophy, successfully used the potent instrument of non-violence first to fight apartheid in South Africa and later to achieve India's independence from colonial rule in a peaceful manner without arousing hatred, rancour or bitterness. His favourite prayer echoes Jain ethics for life on earth:
Practise Before You Preach
It is up to us to look for the divine spark within us in order to spiritually reinforce ourselves to face the future with rejuvenated "inner environment" and harmonious "outer environment".
"Not for any kingdom do I long Not even for the kingdom of heaven Not even for freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death For one and only one thing do I long To free living beings from their agony and pain
To wipe away their tears."
Dr. N. P. Jain is a former Indian ambassador to the United Nations. The above paper was delivered at a Jain conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He lives in Jodhpur, India.
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Born in a royal family surrounded by limitless trappings of luxuries, Mahavir chose to renounce the kingdom of power
December 2001- February 2002 Jain Spirit
27