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towards all the living, the seed of non-violence cannot germinate and become a shoot. For underrating acts of positive non-violence what we need is not attachment but a sense of identification with others. For, if the service were based on attachment, one would undertake the service of own folks and not of unknown strangers. The basis of positive non-violence, i.e., selfless service, life-saving activities charity, etc., is neither selfishness, nor that of returned favours, nor attachment. It stands on the firm ground of discreet sense of duty emanating from the feeling of oneness towards the living. Are all Forms of Life of Same Importance?
The concept of equal importance and value of all forms of life has been mainly responsible for a negative interpretation of nonviolence. As a result, the absolutely essential violence towards one form of life in order to serve or save another form of life was also considered as an act of violence and, therefore, a sinful act. It is true that in order to save some form of life, another form of life has to be sacrificed. If we wish to keep a plant alive we will have to water it. For saving the lives of living beings of vegetable origin, the lives of those of earth-bodied and water-bodied living beings will have to be unavoidably sacrificed. If we wish to save the life of a moving living being, the violence towards creatures of earth, water, air and vegetable origin may become unavoidable. The worldly life cycle is such that the life of one form of life depends on that of the other form, and without taking the lives of the latter types we cannot keep the former type alive. This problem was faced by the ancient Jaina spiritual masters as well, and they resolved it on the basis of the principle of lesser and greater violence.
This principle of lesser and greater violence has been mainly thought of on the basis of two views - firstly, from the consideration of the motivating mentality behind such violence, which could be of two types – 1. Discreet and 2. Sentimental and secondly, based on the form of life that is taken in such acts of positive non-violence. Among the motivating factors or mentality behind discreet acts of positive non
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