Universal Message of Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Dulichand Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 49

Non-Violence In Today's World
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cornering 40 percent of the world's resources and yet the average level of happiness of the people there has not improved.” On the contrary, in that country families are broken up, the relationships between husband and wife, between parents and children are snapped. Individuals feel isolated and alienated with the sense of vacuum and boredom oppressing them - there is that growing inner feeling of futility and absurdity. Any number of remedies likes group therapy; drugs, sexual games and all the rest have failed. Educational experts say that children are more at home with drugs, television, games, etc., than with their parents or their brothers and sisters. In short, considering economic growth alone as the yardstick for measuring standard of life, has verily led to destruction of human personality. It has made man ‘a clog in the wheel' and destroyed the natural rhythm of his life.
A Planet in Trouble
For centuries, the dominant attitude in the western world towards the nature was that it existed for the benefit of mankind. According to them man is the supreme animal and all agencies of nature are his subordinates. Man can exploit and use them according to his whims and fancies. Francis Bacon wrote 400 years ago that the world is made up for man, not man for the world. The result of this attitude is that the global economy is expanding amidst an all-round deterioration of the environment today. This deterioration has reached such a high level that it threatens the very existence of the planet earth. The very aim of man to control nature through science and technology speaks of his greed and exploitation. This is resulting in serious damages to nature and environment. Arnold Toynbee wrote in 1972 in the London Observer, “We are suffering from having sold out our