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MEDIEVAL JAINISM : CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT
harm unto subtle organisms are also to be avoided by a pious Jaina. Apart from its religious aspect vegetarian food has its value in various ways. It is only a strict vegetarian that can assure himself that he is a cultured citizen who is not living at the cost of any other life in this commonwealth of animate beings. Further, the vegetarian diet is conducive to a dispassionate and balanced mind and a detached and equable attitude. It is thus the baser emotions and lower instincts are sublimated resulting in nobler virtues of universal kindness, equality, and brother-hood.
It is admitted by all that nowhere else, as in India, has the doctrine of Ahimsa, universal non-injury or nonviolence, had so great and long continued an influence on national character. It is, therefore, in the natural course of our national history and heritage that outstanding men and women of our land should adhere to vegetarianism, both in public and private, so that they might create a kindlier atmosphere round about them and prove themselves standards of high thinking and plain living
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