________________
188
TULSI-PRAJNA
to which the people objected. In the evening session he expressed his desire to apologise, when Gurudev Tulsi told him that why should he apologise, he was happy that some body at least had come to evaluate his saying critically. Hearing this the lawyer was overwhelmed and praised him for the calm, equanimity and grace to hear, listen and digest his opponents' view point. Non-violent Resistance
Resistance cap be violent or non-violent. Violent resistance is temporary whereas non-violeat resistance is permanent. Lord Mahavir employed non-violent resistance against slavery, similarly Gandhiji used it as Satyagrah, which was quite successful. Summing up his life's experience he says, that non-violence can be of use to general massess, when it gathers the force of resistancc-otherwise non-violence is without any force which cannot command respect in this age. And till the force to resist does not exist, man can not resist injustice. Commenting on the situation he says that if any wrong happens arround you, your family, your neighbourhood and you don't resist it on the ground that it does not effect you, then it is a pegative nutrality, which can be fatal to the very foundation of the concept. So developing your capacity to resist is essential.
Gurudev believes that humility and detachment are the basic pillars of non-violent protest. In his view no prejudice or egotism can persist long against an idea. Any partisan opposition itself is violence and non-violent opposition cannot succeed there. As regards character attributes of a non-violent protestor it, is his view tbat extra-ordinary courage is the imperative requirement of such a person. This calls for forbearance without which the man may lose his mental poise. If mind is not equilibrated. non-violent opposition has no sense. Therefore, ideological tolerance is an element, that is highly desirable.
A person dreading death or pain or swayed by the possibility of the same cannot stand up to violence and will surrender to it. Only those persons who are really courageous and dreadless can stand up to violence and aggression. Some people accept strikes, Gherao etc. as non-violent weapons to resist but Gurudev Tulsi disagrees with them, “because" says he, “it is correct that there is no violent weapon used in this, but this does not have a feeling of sacrifice also. so it cannot be non-violence. It is a way of overawing some body with the show of force and where the show of force is implied in what ever manner, it cannot be non-violence.
This means that to subdue injustice witb injustice is a weakness
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
