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Compassion Towards Animals should commit violence against any animal, organism or being and that alone is the purest and the most durable form of religion. The very first chapter of the Acharang Sutra refers to the causes and instruments of violence. When any one indulges in violence against mute and dumb animals, it is not only against the tenets of society and religion, but it is also violence against self and one's own soul.
The Jain religion has a new approach to compassion towards animals when it says that when you torture an animal or persecute it, or make it unhappy, your acts are not directed so much against the animal, but in reality it is directed against your own self. Man is today experiencing the effects of his own deeds. He has fallen or uprooted hundreds of trees with the result that rains have now become scanty, disturbing the cycle of nature. Man has been killing and slaughtering animals on a large scale which has brought disaster to his very existence. Hence protection of animals is necessary for makind to protect himself. The happiness of animals is a necessary concomitant of the happiness of man. In the same manner, the existence of animals is a necessary concomitant of existence of man on this earth. A very simple rule propounded by the Jain religion in the context of compassion towards animals is 'what you sow, so you reap.' If you harass others, you, too, would be harassed and you will have to suffer the pangs of it. Violence and torture have made animals supportless. If you continue to harass and torture mute or dumb animals, it would one day boomerang and would result in a retaliatory assault on you. One should first decide what one wants to get or achieve in life and give everything generously to others. If you want to be happy, distribute happiness to all without reservation.
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