Positive Non Violence

Author(s): Kanhaiyalal Lodha, Dalpatsingh Baya
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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bondage, but if they are performed without any self-interest and attachment, and if such activities are also undertaken under the influence of feeling the others' pain as one's own. When the vision becomes so wide that others seem as the self, their pain and misery becomes our own pain and misery. Under such circumstances, just as we try to get rid of our own pain we also try to rid others of their pains. From the intellectual point of view the thought of equality between the self and the others and from the emotional point of view the feeling of others' pains as one's own result in universal weal and give rise to such activities as protection, service, charity, benevolence, etc. Therefore, it is incorrect to believe that there is a feeling of attachment behind all acts of universal weal. In practical life, too, there is many an occasion when we feel moved by another's pain and we try to mitigate it. There is no feeling of attachment there. There is only discreet thought and a sense of duty brought about by the feeling of his pain as our own, which motivates us to act in the spirit of positive non-violence. There is a great difference between attachment and sense of duty. Attachment is always coupled with aversion while in the case of sense of duty there is a total absence of the feeling of aversion. When we are moved by the pain of any stranger lying on the road and try to help him, there is no feeling of attachment there, but only the feeling of his pain as our own. There is, again, a difference between helping a pet dog and helping a stray dog. There is a feeling of attachment in the first case while there is no attachment in the second, only a feeling of its pain as our own. There is no feeling of attachment in the acts of protection, nursing, service, and benevolence and such acts are performed purely with a sense of duty arising out of feeling of others' pain as our own. Also, it is clear that in the absence of attachment even if an activity results in karmic influx, it will definitely not result in karmic bondage. It is so, because according to Jain scriptures like Uttarādhyayana (32.7), etc, it is the feeling of attachment and aversion that have been considered as the main causes of karmic bondage. In trying to protect others we may have to, to some extent, even resort to some minor external violence, but it is certainly not a cause for karmic bondage. If we would consider
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Positive Non-Violence