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Bhagwan Mahāvira
115
is the lowest he can elevate himself by doing deeds, good and noble, to a status which is supreme. The fact that one is born in a family which is most inferior cannot force him to forfeit his right to live a religious life.
The Duty of a Ksatriya
It is the common experience of every one of us that the Ksatriya usually arrogates other's property to himself, sows seeds of discontent and enmity, quarrels and fights. Mahāvira himself was a kşatriya. Therefore, it is not out of place to refer to a Kșatriya's duty which is outlined by him and which is potential enough to establish and maintain peace and order in the world. While explaining the kşatriya's religion, he has said that he is on a wrong path who thinks he is victorious as he has been able to finish off millions of people in the war. A man may be able to score a win by doing away with external enemies but what is more important is to bring under control one's own self. So long as one does not establish mastery of his soul, the roots of all types of war cannot be removed. His war never comes to an end. Retaliation and counter-retaliation continue. What is the meaning of self-conquest ? To control all the five sense-organs, to defy anger by forgiveness, to neutralize the effect of egoism by gentleness, to reduce hypocrisy to nothingness through adopting straight forwardness, to defeat avarice by contentment and to subjugate the monkeying mind-all these constitute real self-conquest. When the whole universe will apply itself to putting into practice this concept of self-mastery, permanent peace will prevail. Otherwise the suppression of one war will give rise to another war.
The bravery of the brave consists in giving up comforts of life and in remaining unaffected having quelled passions. It is a sheer bondage if one makes an effort to increase one's material prosperity involving slaughter of many an innocent life.
A way to Non-injury The preachings and professions of Mahāvira, though on the face of them straight and simple, are difficult to be practised. This is the reason why people do not give up wars though they see the dangerous results of wars with their own eyes and continue to believe that the war only is the instrument that can remove all quarrels. But a day is not far off when man will have to adopt a non-injurious way of life abandoning all the means and instruments which can cause war involving an untold loss of life. Otherwise he will have to remain ready to welcome his own destruction
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