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Compassion Towards Animals
million have been identified and biologists believe that several millions are on road to extinction in this century itself, while 15 millions of the remaining are likely to be extinct during the next few decades thereafter.
Ahimsa, non-violence, has been the corner-stone of Jainism. Ahimsa is one of the basic virtues. Nowhere else in the other religious traditions has this basic virtue been so scientifically, scrupulously and thoroughly integrated with the main doctrine. Jainism is the only tradition which has consistently allowed this tenet to enter into the very essentials of its teachings and practices. This singular uncompromising emphasis on Ahimsa is the special and exclusive feature of Jainism. In Jainism, Ahimsa is not mere human sympathy; it is empathy, the urge to identify oneself completely with other persons, other living beings, and the whole universe.
Non-violence is the heart of Jainism. Positively stated, Jainism is a religion of compassion, universal love and friendliness. It aims at the welfare of all living beings, and not of man alone. It maintains that living beings are infinite, all so called empty spaces in the universe are filled with minute living beings.
According to it, there are countless single-sense organisms that take the subtlest possible units of material elements - earth, water, fire and air as their bodies. Fresh earth is alive, but when it is baked, it becomes dead. Fresh water from a well, etc. is alive, but when it is boiled or influenced by mixing some other substance, it becomes dead. Vegetables, trees, plants, fruits, etc. do have life, but when they are dried, cut or cooked,
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