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lustration by Timothy Cutting. Email:
Jain Eguration International
WAR BEC FROM WORDS
SATISH KUMAR widens the definition of ahimsa
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When
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I was an eighteen-year-old Jain monk, I read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. As a monk I was concerned with personal non-violence. But Gandhi had made personal non-violence go a bit further and extended it into social, political and ecological non-violence. Of course,
the roots of social, political and ecological non-violence are all there in Jain philosophy. But in practice, we Jains have become too centred on personal non-violence. Influenced by Gandhi, I wanted to extend non-violence into social, political and ecological spheres. So I remain a Jain, although no longer a monk, and I continue my quest on the path of holistic non-violence. I do so because I believe that the Jain philosophy is dynamic rather than a static dogma.
they all means a person who keeps silence (maunam). It is believed that when Mahavir A Jain monk is called a muni. The word 'muni' gave his first sermon sitting under the tree, he sat in silence. Animals, birds, angels and humans - all came for this great event, and
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