The Truth

Author(s): O P Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 88

OTHER ALLIED QUESTIONS
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self (v) getting done by others (vi) praising or encouraging the action of others (vii) by thought (viii) by speech and (ix) by body. Each of these phases of himsa have to be avoided gradually. Eating meat, which has not been specially killed for oneself, involves a full share of himsa and amounts to encouraging himsa by others.
A worldly man cannot avoid himsa in all forms, as described in above chart, except the wanton cruelty i.e., himsa marked 'A' in the above chart. Saints are able to avoid all himsa except towards one sensed beings. As a person succeeds in controlling his desires, and rises spiritually, he does not find it difficult to avoid himsa even in finer forms.
A man engaged in the act of killing is not only indifferent to the suffering and pain he is causing to his victim for his own selfish endssometimes he actually delights in it-but has also no idea of the subtle forces engendered by such an act in his own system. Such a man has the three characteristics of thoughtlessness, selfishness and heartlessness. The analysis of the victim's mind discloses the presence, in addition to an intense feeling of pain, of horror, fear, hatred, resentment, and despair of the worst possible type. The mental states of the sinner and the victim both are highly inimical to the progress of the soul. Such persons who follow the path of himsa, are not only the enemies of their own souls, but also of those of their helpless victims. Since future births are decided by the nature of tendencies evolved out by the soul, such persons are drawn to a type of life marked by mental traits of cruelty, selfishness and thoughtlessness.
It is to be understood that the soul is affected only by its own thoughts and feelings. Hence, where the mind is not tinged with passions, no harmful consequences will result from an act that might even end in the causing of death e.g., during operations performed by surgeons.
To be logical, scope of ahinsa must be extended to all living beings and not merely limited to humanity. Let it be clearly understood that if you have no love for the life in the animal, you will not have it for man either. There is no such thing as a sudden rush of a ffection for one form of life all atonce.
Ahimsa will purify, ennoble and sweeten life in all spheres and establish brotherly relations among men, communities and Nations,