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"violence engenders violence, revenge leads to counterrevenge and a war sows the seeds of further wars.” The Indian Law of Karma and the Gita's view of Niskāma Karma strengthen Gandhi's position that he has taken regarding means. In other words, immoral actions will entail ignoble consequences and too much attachment to ends, will detract the attention of the doer from the means, which may lead us to the use of defiled means. So Gandhi believes, “if one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.”.
Now the question is: by what criterion the moral nature of means is to be decided. Gandhi unequivocally pronounces that non-violence is the test of shifting the moral from the immoral and it is to be regarded as the guiding factor in all affairs of life. Thus Ahirnsā is the supreme virtue. In a way Ahiṁsā is truth itself. In fact, truth and Ahimsā are so intertwined that it is difficult to separate one from the other. Like truth it is not a matter so much of argument as of faith and experience.
The practice of Ahimsā develops in man other virtues of Aparigraha, Asteya, compassion, friendship, etc. But what is Ahimsā? Gandhi says, “Ahiṁsā means avoiding injury to anything on earth in thought, word or deed”. But such absolute Ahiṁsā is possible only in the plenitude of mystical experience. In fact, “man is subject to Hiṁsā by the very condition of his existence, yet instead of aggravating the natural weight of Hirsā by falling foul upon one another, we should endeavour to alleviate this general curse to the extent to which we are capable of doing”. The major defect of Himsā is that it invades both the sin and the sinner, whereas Ahiṁsā distinguishes between man and his deeds. Ahiṁsā hates the sin but not the sinner. Besides, it lays stress on self-reform before taking any step to reform others. In short,
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Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays
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