Wave of Bliss

Author(s): N P Jain
Publisher: Jain Meditation International Centre

Page 26

AHIMSA
Reagan during his visit to Mexico presented a rifle to the President of Mexico. Pro-gun organisations tell people: "Guns don't need people; people do." But even to own a gun, says Elizabeth, is a violation of Ahimsa for it implies, 'I can kill you'. America was built on God, guns and guts mentality. It is a tragic fact that the average high school graduate has been exposed to 18000 TV murders, the rich can buy gold-plated pistols per $10000/-, and guns have come to be regarded as American as baseball and apple juice. In 1980 there were eight handgun murders in England but in USA the number was 10012— Enough bad news".
Clare Rosenfield has written with great lucidity, eloquence and depth of feeling on the state of world today with indifference and cruelty to life being perpetuated all around us, with ahimsa being relegated to the background, and fear, terror and agony increasing the area of suffering for the humanity and indeed for all living beings. The letter is a beautiful form of poetic prose because the expressions have flown from Clare's heart:
“In these "civilized' days of minutely planned weapon systems, precise mechanisms of premeditated mass murder in the name of 'self-defence', we have become inured to violence. Torture is justified as patriotism; missiles are calculated to target only people, not buildings, in some cases; people who hold minority views or who are not in a position of power are discriminated against and economically exploited. Why? Because of the fundamental flaw in thinking, because of the gap between intellect and
feeling.
When feeling and thinking are in harmony, one would not hesitate to say that all living beings, not just men, not just women, not just wild life, not just certain species of