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AHIMSA AS THE KEY TO WORLD PEACE
existing tendency in the soul. The sum total of these tendencies is what is termed character, or disposition, which goes with the soul, and takes part in the shaping of its future destiny. The explanation of how this is brought about is this: all these tendencies are powerful active forces which during life are constantly urging and moving us for various ends. After death also they remain active, and continue to vibrate. They have no hands and feet to set in motion then; but they work on the matter which the soul absorbs in the shape of nourishment, as a growing embryo, and with their agitations or vibrations mould the impregnated lump into shape and form. The symmetry of the limbs and form, the excellence and even the existence of the mind and brain, are thus directly dependent on the working of the store of the tendencies which one brings with him from his previous life. Where the agitations are too violent, for instance, it may be taken that the excellence and symmetry of the mind and bodily organs will be impaired. This is just a mere indication of how the law of karma is put into operation to the advantage or disadvantage of an individual.
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Now my point is this that in order to impress a rational mind, like that of a modern boy or girl, you have got to convince him or her of the need for peacefulness and alter his or her emotional nature, destroying the element of savageness and barbarian greed from the heart. A rationally inclined mind can never, for all times, be impressed with dogma and ill-founded reason; and without the training and control of the emotions, it is not possible to make a man a real lover of peace. And the test of the real love of peace is that one should cheerfully offer his cloak also when his coat is claimed at law.
The need for the giving away of the cloak over and above the coat will become more clearly impressed on the mind if we remember that many people and nations are now
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