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Religion, Practice and Science of Non-Violence
The Aryans worshipped and offered sacrifices to their godsIndra, Varuna, Agni, etc.,-in time of peace as in time of war. They wanted a good prosperous life for themselves, and if there was an obstruction to it from another person, they requested their gods for his removal or annihilation. The oblations in their sacrifices included freshly killed animals. The Aryans of the Vedic Age believed in the Non-Violence of the gods; for the opponent they had no such scruples.
By the time of the Upanishads (800 BC), however, the trend had changed. Upanishadic seers devoted most of their time to finding the ultimate truth that lies behind the visible world. They strived after and found identity between the highest principle that manifests itself, the Brahma, and the individual self, the Atman. They sought union of the Atman with the Brahma, so as to attain moksha, liberation of the soul. In the process of this search they came to realize that doing good to others and living a virtuous life were preliminaries that could lead them to their goal. Ahimsa (Non-Violence) was one of these virtues and requisites.
Use of the word ahimsa in Hindu literature is found for the first time in Chhandogya Upanishad.1 A verse in it says: Ath yat tapo danam arjavam ahimsā satyavacanum ity tā asya daksinah.2
Whatever penance, charity, sincerity, the desire not to do harm and truthfulness are, these are his contributions (towards a symbolic sacrifice).
Another verse in Chhandogya Upanishad says: 'He who concentrates all his senses in the self, he who is harmless towards all creatures except at holy places, he who behaves thus throughout his life, reaches the Brahma world, does not return hither again, yea, he does not return hither again."
Chhandogya Upanishad mentions ahimsa as one, though not the first, requisite. Sandilyopanishad, one of the later creations, mentions ahimsa as the first ethical restraint (yamas); the others,
1According to T.W. Rhys Davids, Chhandogya Upanishad may belong to seventh century BC (Ency. of Religion and Ethics, Vol. I. Article on Ahimsa by T.W. Rhys Davids, p. 230).
2 Ch. Up, 3.17.4
3Ibid, 8.15.1. (tr. by S. Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanishads, p. 512).
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