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iscussions about violence and non-violence have been going on since ancient times. Every great thinker to date has examined this issue minutely yet no comprehensive
or categorical definition of non-violence or violence has been found, neither has their essence been unequivocally revealed.
Non-violence is the highest pinnacle of Jain philosophy. Every facet of the Jain path of spiritual purification comprises non-violence. Countless religious texts have been written on it, and its every aspect has been analysed in detail.
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The important thing to understand about the concept of nonviolence is that, so long as there is life, violence is implicit in our every act. We commit violence in walking; there is violence in eating and drinking. There are microscopic creatures on the ground that are obliterated with our every step. Similarly there are tiny creatures suspended in the air, invisible to the naked eye, that are destroyed as our bodies move about. Our every breath kills some little creature. In every organ of our body, in our very blood, flesh and bones and in all our bodily fluids, a myriad microbes live and die by the second. In this situation we need to ask how we can observe the practice of non-violence, and prevent ourselves from committing violence. Jain tradition answers this question in terms of dravya-himsa (an external or physical act of violence), and bhavhimsa (being violent from within). If the seeker is aware, can discriminate between the two, remains non-violent from within and is totally free of a violent attitude, he will still be called a nonviolent person even in the face of dravya-himsa. This dravya-himsa without bhav-himsa is himsa (violence) merely in appearance. Such an act of violence does not bring with it the bondage of negativekarma. In this way, since the mind is free of a violent attitude, though dravya-himsa has occurred, the practice of non-violence itself remains intact.
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