Positive Non Violence

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

Page 82

benevolence, generosity, gentility, sensitivity, etc. These two aspects of non-violence are mutually complementary.
Here, it is worthy of consideration that Bhagvān Mahāvīra was the all accomplished Lord. He had nothing more to accomplish after gaining his enlightenment and omniscience. Then why did He deliver His discourses to the worldly creatures? Which gain or merit did He earn by delivering these discourses? He delivered these discourses in order to express his feeling of mercy and protection for the worldly beings. As has been said in the Praśnavyākarana sūtra –
Savva-jagajīvarakkhaṇadayathayāe pāvayaņayam Bhagavayā sukahiyam
The Lord delivered His discourses with a feeling of mercy and protection for all the worldly living beings.
The delivering of discourses and personaly enlightening of the listeners by the totally detached Lord is the finest living example of positive non-violence.
Even before their monastic ordinations Bhagvān Mahāvīra and all other Tīrthankaras, who were endowed with three kinds of perceptions (Sensory, Scriptural and Clairvoyant), also gave great charities, without any discrimination, to all those who came for one whole year each. If giving of charities were a cause of worldly transmigration and a hindrance in the form of golden shackles, in the gaining of spiritual emancipation and final liberation, the Lord would not have done so at all. Even if such a negligence had been committed by Him due to His unenlightened state at the time, He would have definitely mentioned it as His negligence out of ignorance and forbidden such charities after becoming enlightened. He would have mentioned its proscription in His discourses and would have included non-charity also as a vow for the monks as well as the householders. However, no such proposition or proscription exists anywhere in the canonical literature. On the contrary, there is prescription for the giving of charity.
Positive Non-Violence