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જેન યુગ
એપ્રિલ ૧૯૫૯
is concerned Ahimsa has been universally accepted as the highest law or principleAhimsa paramo dharmah--and it has influenced the culture of India throughout the ages. But the pity is that perhaps, except Mahavira amongst the ancients and Gandhiji amongst the moderns, none of the sages have preached its practice in life to the fullest extent. Even Buddha who, next to Mahāvīra, is regarded the biggest apostle of Ahimsa and his followers have not abstained from eating meat. Others, while preaching Ahimsa, have sanctioned animal sacrifice in the name of religion. When even sages have thus compromised with principles and thus connived at a breach of law of nature, what can be expected from the common ignorant people? They just succumb to temptations and find out all sorts of excuses for their acts. They even go to the extent of bribing Gods or making them co-sharers in the act of killing of animals and on the plea that thereby all their sins will be excused and they will enter heaven. That is how callousness has spread to all spheres of life as we have seen above and the world has reached a stage when it may explode at any moment.
heads of the world blocs, approach the world masses and convince them of the truth that Ahimsa is a law of nature which can be transgressed only at a peril to the world, and show to the world that they do not mean to pay only lip homage to this law, but mean to live their life according to this law in the minutest detail. Then only they can hope to convert the human mind to the principle of Ahimsa and make it impossible for the political leaders to play with the lives of millions of human beings. Ahimsa or compassion must be made a living basis of human thought, word and deed, in individual lives, to have any effect on the collective, national or international spheres. Wars can be outmoded only if callousness i. e. Himsa is uprooted from the world and this can be possible only if the whole outlook of the world is changed. This cannot be brought about either by slogan-mongering or by resolutions of world bodies or by summit conferences. Practice is always more effective than precept. The thinking peoples, the national and international leaders of various religious groups, must put the principle in practice in the minutest details of their individual lives, then only they can in some generations control and uproot callousness and free the world from the ever-growing threat of destruction. They must know and understand the principle, having living and burning faith in it, and must act upto it.
Some of the leaders, notably the Indian leaders, are trying their best to avoid the world catastrophe, but if they want to succeed in their attempts, they should instead of negotiating with the political
"I say with conviction that the doctrine for with the name of Lord Mahāvira is glorified nowadays is the doctrine of Ahimsa. If anyone has practised to the fullest extent and propagated most the doctrine of Ahimsa, it was Lord Mahavira."
-Mahatma Gandhi
