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JAINISM WILL STOP WARS
43:
not qualified to grasp the full explanation, and therefore the doctrine was given in the form of a commandment which they were to follow. Now, I ask you, if the taking of life for the purpose of a sacrifice in the name of one's god, once a year or so, is cruel and calls for the exercise of mercy, does it cease to be cruel when done for one's own selfish purpose, and in the name of one's own palate or tongue ? Such, briefly, is the explanation of the effect of an action on oneself. Hence, Jainism teaches quite plainly that those who practise ahimsi, that is to say, those who carry out the principle of mercy and love in their lives, not only experience the joy of letting others live, but they also actually and truly benefit themselves, while those who are greedy and selfish, and barbarous, and those who are actuated by the principle of hatred in their dealings with other forms of life, and all those who are vicious and who delight in acts of bloodshed and the raking up and fomenting of quarrels and disputes are, in reality, neither friends of themselves nor of anybody else. They are, in fact, the greatest enemies of mankind, including themselves and those whom they hold dear and near.
Such, my friends, is the doctrine of love ; it will enable us to realise our real inherent Divinity if we put it into practice; but if we disregard it and act contrary to its dictates there can be no doubt but that the curse pronounced on the typical (symbolized) isinner in the Bible--cursed is the ground for thy sake-becomes really descriptive of our own spirits. It is in our hands to make of this inner spirit-substance a veritable Garden of Eden or reduce it to a state of desolation when it will be capable of yielding only thistles and thorns in place of the ambrosia from the Life-giving Tree. It may interest you to know that this curse becomes effective through the material influx that has been referred to already by me today. In the Bible also the fact of this evil influx is distinctly recognized, though, like most Biblical tenets, the doctrine could not be and is not given in clear terms. In the 69th Psalm (see verses 1 and 2 the soul of the chorister thus expresses its shuddering horror of the in-rushing stream :--
1"Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am come in unto deep waters where the floods overflow me.”
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