Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 53

Nonviolence for All
SATISH KUMAR Schumacher College
When I was an eighteen year old Jain monk, I read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. I felt that as a monk I was concerned with personal nonviolence. But Gandhi had made personal nonviolence go a bit further and extended it into social, political and ecological nonviolence. Of course the roots of social, political, and ecological nonviolence are all there in the Jain philosophy. But in practice we Jains have become too centered on personal nonviolence. Influenced by Gandhi, I wanted to extend nonviolence in to social, political and ecological spheres. So I remain a Jain, although no longer a monk and I continue my quest on the path of holistic nonviolence. I do so because I believe that the Jain philosophy is dynamic rather than static dogma.
My life as a monk was only a beginning, not the end of the journey. For example, you put a small seedling in a little container because a small seedling cannot withstand the cold weather, the wind, and the storm outside in the fields. So as a good gardener you put the seedling in a small pot. When the seedling becomes a big and strong plant then you need to put the plant in the field to become a tree. If you always keep the plant in the pot, it will never become a full tree. May be it will remain as a bonsai tree but if you want a dynamic and natural tree you have to put the seedling out in the field.
I am deeply grateful to my Guru and teacher, acăarya Tulsī. The foundation of my life was laid out by him under a protective
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