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The propounder of Parsi religion, Saint Zerthustra, who is believed to have been born during 10th century and 6th century BC has strongly stressed in the holy scripture "Zend Avesta' that to make enemy as friend is one among the three prime duties of man It is obviously based on the concept of Ahimsa The 6th Commandment among the Ten Commandments propounded by prophet Mozes, the propounder of Jew religion, says "Do not kill any one ' Christ, who gave new dimensions to the contemporary religions and started the Christian religion, very much condemned the doctrine of Doing same for the same 'He preached 'Love thy neighbour' and 'Love and service of all living beings 'Islam has also condemned violence or injury In Guru Grantba Saheb violence has not been liked
Ahimsa has been preached by the 24th Tirthankara Mahavir as a great religion 'Ahimsa Parmo Dharma', as it causes protection to all beings Ahimsa is a complete religion in itself Ahimsa contains in it the virtues like forgiveness, tolerance and feeling of equality Generally it is one of those great ethical virtues which cause happiness in life and guide the persons to follow right path
In its wider concept Ahimsa means non-injury We discard not only physical violence of any kind but also injury of any kind to the living beings
Violence or injury occurs in two ways i e by thought or determination (Bhava Himsa) and occurrence of Himsa (Dravya Himsa). In Jainism, Himsa, of both types has been condemned
Non-violence or non-injury (Ahimsa) actually means no living being should be got killed captured or mentally hurted
There are two aspects of Ahimsa negative and positive Negative aspect means not to allow or commit violence in any form and to prevent committance of violence The negative aspect is generally more known to the people Its positive aspect includes compassion, help, charity etc
Violence occurs because of four mental vices viz, anger, pride, illusion and greed It is, therefore, essential to control these mental vices in order that violence may not be committed
Food and Ahimsa have close relationship Ahimsa necessarily requires taking of vegetarian food The term vegetarian derived is from the Latin root "vegetare" and was spoken for the first time in 1842 AD This means "one who abstains from the use as food of flesh, fish and fowl, with or without the addition of eggs and dairy produce " A vegetarian is a firm believer in abstinence from meat, fish eggs etc and lives wholly on vegetarian food
At present most of the vegetarians in the world are lacto-vegetarians who live on vegetables, food, milk and milk products Some of them consider egg as a vegetable whereas others eliminate the use of eggs completely treating it as non
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