Lord Mahavira and His Teachings

Author(s): Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 56

Lord Mahavira and His Teachings
has rightly maintained : "The very conquests man has made by his intelligence over the brute forces of nature-his science and inventions—are employed to make man more savage than the beasts of jungle, more noxious than the most poisonous plant or vermin to his fellows."1
The cardinal doctrine on which the edifice of Jainism rests from times immemorial is Ahimsa or non-violence. In Prashna-Vyakarana, it has been called Bhagavati. Jainism believes that weapons are in no way effective answer to weapons. Lord Mahavira has emphatically declared in Acharanga Sutra that one weapon is stronger than and superior to the other, but the path of Ahimsa or peace remains unsurpassed. Real peace can only be established by creating good-will in an individual soul towards other fellow beings on the basis of equality and sanctity of life. Various Governments may create the atmosphere of absence of war but not of the existence of peace. Inviolability of the individual self in all the forms is basic contribution of Jainism. When we begin to believe that all life is sacred, our attitude towards living beings is changed and we then desire to live and let live. To injure or harm others is to harm or exploit oneself. Jaina Agamas say that one abhors those who give pain to these living bodies or we feel ashamed of seeing others doing sins. Fire cannot be out with fire. For this purpose it is our duty to stop adding fuel to the flames. Jaina scriptures say that blood-stained cloth cannot be washed off with blood, we need water for that. To achieve world pleace, we
1. Foundations of Peace. p. 10.