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matter – pudgala. Therefore, to consider the body as the 'self' is to consider the destructible, perishable and the inert as the conscious. In other words, we can say that the one that holds such a view is a nonspiritualist. The activities of a non-spiritualist are false and base and are harmful for him, the world and the entire universe.
An active spiritual aspirant is a spiritualist. His actions and activities are beneficial for him, the world, and the entire universe. That is why he has been referred to as a Spiritualist, Universalist, Actionist and a believer in the doctrine of karma.
It has been said above that every human being is endowed with three powers of knowing, believing and doing. That is, he is endowed with the powers of knowledge, vision and conduct. For employing these three powers every human being has his intellect, mind and body. He knows through his intellect, visualises and believes through his mind or his inner self and he does things with his body. These three powers can be used in harmful as well as beneficial activities. To use them to harm somebody, is to misuse them and it is this misuse of these powers that has been said to be improper and undoable. To use these powers to benefit somebody is their proper use and it has been said to be proper and doable duty. To engage the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect in sensory and mundane enjoyments is to shackle the ‘self in the calamitous chains of dependence, inertness, destructibility, etc. It is to harm oneself. Again, to indulge in violence, untruth, stealing, etc., in order to get the means of such mundane enjoyments is to harm the others as well as the self. Mentally to consider someone as bad, verbally to talk ill of others and bodily to torment others is to render oneself sinful and bad. These very things have been said to be sins, undoable activities and flaws. All such bad activities must be considered as harmful for the ‘self and the others and should be renounced.
The activities are of two types – auspicious and inauspicious. 1. To be violent, to tell lies, to deceive, to indulge in attachment and aversion, are sinful and inauspicious activities and they result in sinful
Positive Non-Violence
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