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habit of luxurious life and cultivate the habit of enduring all the hardships resulting from wants. This will lead to peaceful living.
It is really astonishing to know that the sun begets darkness but more surprising is that in the social or individual life himsa has extended its spheres. The main base of social life is mutual understanding. Each and every unit of a society should help each other. No one should become a hindrance. Jain Acharyas said "All should help each other" Social life means a life of mutual understanding. When the relation of social units are peaceful, society progresses by leaps and bounds. When there are tensions, society become weakened.
Violence has manifold causes. According to some social thinkers, himsa is caused by the followings: (1) Mental tension
(2) Negative attitude. (3) Mental fickleness
(4) Nervous imbalance (5) Bio-chemical imbalance. Others believe: (1) The seed of violence lies in the genes. (2) The seed of violence is in circumstances. (3) The seed of violence lies in fundamental instincts.
Besides these factors, the philosophical belief is that the seed of himsa lies in Karmas. It is the main source of all the evils. Himsa springs from it.
A man cannot live alone. He has to live in a society. Society means an assemblage of many people of different tastes.
All the people have their own instincts, tastes and thinking. As such to lead a peaceful life, one has to adjust with all. He has to give up some of his own likings and try to reconcile with others. This can only be accomplished when one has imbibed the essence of Ahimsa.
Non-violence is friendliness. This paves the way for peaceful living. Ifone engenders enmity, every unit of the society becomes against him and thus he becomes an enemy. He is left alone. Thus cut off from the society, he becomes full of tensions and his life becomes miserable. But on the other hand if he cultivates friendship with all, without any distinction of caste, creed, colour or race, he becomes one with all and thus he can be an instrumental cause for social upliftment.
Ahińså is the purity of heart. A man who has pure heart is an open
THAT Y511372-HE, 2005
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