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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
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they not push man out of existence? Here is my answer to the first of these points; it comes from the Sunday Express, dated 20th April 1930. That paper points out that 5,678,631 casualties occurred in Great Britain since 1918 from industrial and traffic accidents alone; and the number of road fatalities for the year 1929 according to the same paper, dated 27th April 1930, for Great Britain is 6,696. What is the figure for the whole world for these years can be easily guessed. Surely, no wild animals ever killed as many men as the motor cars and mines are killing today! And as for the second point, India had been practically vegetarian for long millenniums before the Muhammadan advent, yet the Indians were not squeezed out of the country by rabbits and hens! It may be added that Jainism fully recognizes the right of the king to protect his subjects from attacks from wild beasts, and will not be opposed to their destruction to that extent.
It is well to recognize and it will do no good to kick against the pricks, that spirit is a substance and every soul has an unending future before it. It rests with us to make or mar that future. Meritorious living (ahimsā as qualified in the householder's stage)
ill lead to happy and prosperous conditions in the future rebirth. A life dedicated to himsā (cruelty,' lack of love) will lead to degradation and culminate in calamity in the future rebirths. But a more arduous lifé, aiming at the complete separation of spirit and matter, will lead to Nirvana.
How to modify modern civilization ? is one of the questions that naturally arises in this connection, and the answer is easy. Without going into details, I can
