Walk With Me

Author(s): Chandanaji Acharya, Vastupal Parikh
Publisher: Veerayatan

Page 95

Ch. 8: Ahimsa and Social Justice
which bond with the soul and ruin its prospects for liberation. The killer is actually violating the sanctity of his own soul by taking it deeper in the karmic bondage and away from its path of liberation. Any act, intentional or not, which violates our | Any act, intentional or
not, which violates our soul's innate quality of compassion, and
soul's innate quality of hurts its chances of liberation is violence. compassion, and hurts Thus, while both intentional and
its chances of liberation,
I is essentially violence. unintentional violent acts attract more karmic bondage, our intention and the intensity of passions in a violent act determine the outcome of such bondage. Passions are like glue. They bond karmic particles to our soul. Unintentional acts, being passionless, lack the glue and form week bonds, but we must face the consequence for our lack of caution in these acts, such bonds can be easily broken off by seeking pardon.
The audience was puzzled, but was trying to understand. Mahavir continued, “Now let us look at the second type of violence - that motivated by our mind. Most violence in this world is motivated by our mind's insatiable needs. Our passions, lust, greed, ego, and anger perpetrate most violence in the world. Every war in history has its origin in the human mind. Animal sacrifices, killing animals for food, fishing, hunting, and all these violent acts are to satisfy the ugly needs of the human mind. These are not acts of survival. Killing is not natural to the soul; kindness and compassion are. Our passions are always involved in intentional violent acts. They haunt our 'guilty' conscience, and our soul tells us that it has been degraded and taken further away from liberation and freedom. Strong karmic bonds are formed due to our passions, and our soul is truly violated.
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Jain Education Interational