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Towards A Truly Global Society Cruelty is not merely a form of external act, it is part of one's evil thinking. One, who is cruel, will demonstrate and practice cruelty against every being - may it be human beings or animals or even insects. Man has become so cruel and crude, that even when he wants to testfire his gun, he would kill someone without any hesitation or remorse. Man today emulates animals in respect of creulty. This is the age of physical strength - nay, animal strength. In the US, once a father scolded his son for some wrong doing. The son suddenly retorted by saying, “I will shoot you." Thus in every aspect of his life - may be newspapers, films, T.V., books - there is violence. In such a situation, the feeling of non-violence will guide the world in the right direction in which humanity should go in future. One who has compassion in his heart, will show compassion to every being.
Mahavira's concept of non-violence appealed to Mahatma Gandhi, two thousand five hundred years later and he applied it to all walks of life. In 1946 he stood unarmed with compassion in his heart before a furious mob which was carrying lethal weapons. The mob had to bow down before this half-naked Fakir. Non-violence had won, violence was defeated. Lord Mountbatton had then said, "What we could not accomplish by dispatching a full army brigade was accomplished single handedly by this one man, thereby saving the entire eastern side of the country from complete annihilation. One remembers Prof. S. R. Bhatt's statement in which he had said, “The seed of the thought that was sown some two thousand five hundred years ago was reaped by Gandhi (The Thought of Ahimsa). As if there was an invisible traffic between Mahavira and Gandhi." This principle of Ahimsa will have to be adopted in practice
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