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OUR AHIMSA AND NON-VIOLENCE to become weak and sheepish and to submit to all kinds of repression and hard measures of the government because of our helplessness and weak state to combat them. But because he wanted to bring down the Government to its knees by fighting with it in place of a battle of bombs and machine gunsa more elevated battle-in which the chief opposing forces are truth and a lofty soul. Contempt for the material forces of the world was the chief ideal and if people had realized its power the position this day would have been entirely different. Violence being the common weapon of nations living in this material age, he wanted to set an example to the West of the renunciation of all such material factors by the East and still becoming victorious in the face of it. But this was not to be. People failed to grasp the inner and educative principles involved in the programme. Now his conception of non-violence is entirely the same as ours. It is not cowardice which induces it but excess of strength which breeds contempt for the use of violence. It is the same spirit which prevents a tiger from taking any note of an ant which creeps all over his body. If this fact were to be realized and carefully grasped it would solve many difficulties of the day.
Let our young men on whom the motherland looks for the alleviation of its sufferings conserve energy and virility shakti as it is called but use it not for combating with others physically but to learn how to suffer, how to repel physical force by the magnetic virtues of spiritual enlightenment. And this is what our Lord Mahavira (the greatest strength) propounded. They say “Jo marna janta hai oahi maarna janta hai" one who knows to die knows to kill and let us know how to die cheerfully and without groans for the sake of our country and truth. This and Eternal faith in our power will in due course of time bring us all that we desire. India will not be free by paper resolutions and council debates but by the spirit of youth the cultivation of strength and shakti. Let this be the message from door to door and you will see the miracle. So, essentially people are coming to the same principles for the mitigation of the sufferings which were propounded thousands
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
