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A LECTURE ON AHIMSA
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I shall just place before you what little I know of the great
subject.
What is Ahimsa ? The term Ahimsa means Non-Himsa. Then, What is Him sa ? A great Maharishi, Sri Umaswami by name, who lived some 2000 years ago has briefly'defined it as Pramalla yogat prana viyaparopanam himsa, Hurting any the vitalities of a living being through passional vibrations, i.e. through carelessness, anger, pride, deceit or greed is himsa or injury. Prana is defined as that which indicates the presence of soul in a body. There are ten such pranas, they are the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing, the powers of body, speech and mind, respiration and duration of life.
Living beings are mainly divided into two classes, mobile beings (trasa jivas) and immobile beings (sthavara jivas). A mobile being is one that can move from one place to another and an immobile being is one that cannot do so. On the basis of the sense-organs they possess, the living beings are divided into five classes namely one-sensed, two-sensed, threesensed, four-sensed and five-sensed beings. Earth-bodied, water-bodied, fire-bodied, air-bodied, and vegetables have only one sense, namely the sense of touch. They are immobile. They cannot move from one place to another. In addition to the sense of touch, they have the force of body, respiration and duration of life, altogether four pranas. Let me illustrate by an example. When we study the life of a plant, what do we find. We find that it grows, yields fruits and then after sometime it withers and dies. Dr. Bose has proved that the plants have the feeling of touch and respiration. In our actual experience we find that it offers bodily resistence. So on the whole it has four pranas e.g. sense of touch, power of body, respiration and age. The two-sensed beings e.g. worms, have the senses of touch, taste, powers of body and speech, respiration and duration of life, altogether six pranas.
The three sensed beings, e.g. ant, have the senses of touch, taste and smell, powers of body and speech, respiration and duration of life, on the whole seven pranas.
The four-sensed beings, e.g. bees, have the senses of touch
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
