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The True Laws of Life
who always practise universal love, we can see that there is really nothing in this to prove that universal love causes the country to be overrun with animals. It is probable that there is not a single instance in a community of Jainas in which a person is known to have been devoured by any wild beast. No monk has up to this time been killed in this way. All these facts would prove that this practice of universal love tends to curb the wild nature of animals.
We have said that these beasts have a ferocious nature. There is no real necessity for a ferocious nature in animals but there must be some reason for its existence. It is a result of some kind of feeling on the part of human beings. Where there is always a desire of killing there is always a great deal of passion and if the human being on account of his inventive genius has discovered many things for the purpose of destroying them, yet he does not diminish the number of these animals; they must be destroyed every year. There are many other things which destroy human life, and the means taken to destroy them, simply increase them, because it is not the right means. Evil is not to be averted by another evil, but by good. Even in great wars, where people have fought with one another, a compromise has been brought about by word of mouth and in no other way. I think that this was also said by one of your presidents in his message (Lincoln.) Therefore we always prefer the mode of forgiveness and not of offending in return.
There is another reason why such a report as this that I have quoted comes to this country, of so many human beings having been killed. It is this, that when a person dies the dead body is taken to the coroner's and a certificate must accompany it; and if such a certificate is not produced inquiry will be made, which would take so much time and trouble for the relatives of the person, discuss the physical condition, mental, moral and spiritual conditions of the soul, and the laws which are to be derived
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