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A Journey of Ahimsa
If victory was achieved, they would relish its fruit - riches and prosperity. In those days innumerable women were widowed and children rendered orphans. In the orgy of violence, innocent lives were lost.
Mahavira said: "You have no right to kill those whom you can not invest with life. Violence begets violence and revenge begets revenge. Non-violence is the supreme dharma (religion) and violence is the root of all evils."
He preached the message of non-violence and peace to the kings of his times. It was an all-encompassing creed extending to the entire living world. Acharang Sutra says: आयातुले पयासु - consider all living organisms to be as precious as your ownself. Those who can be cruel to animals can be cruel to human beings, too. Violence is not external behaviour or conduct, but inner evil instinct. One, who harbours cruelty or violence in the heart, will be violent to one and all and one, who has the spring of compassion in his the heart, will be compassionate to all living creatures, including the world of nature.
He also said that the soul happens to be in one Yoni (Tortoise like raised birthplace) in this birth and it may be in another in the next birth. If one is a fly today, he is likely to be a human being in the next and hence a human being has no right to cause pain to non-human beings. One must, therefore, treat all creatures with love and compassion. In Aagam Sutra (Cononical Literature), Mahavira says: "You are the one whom you intend to kill, the one whom you want to rule over, the one you want to cause harm to. Therefore, one who is knowledge-able does not kill anyone or rule over others or cause any harm to others."
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