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SHREE CHITRABHANU
L.M.: That require experiments on animals.
S.C.: This way one is practicing reverence for life in one's own life—be it in eating, in wearing clothes, in doing business, and in earning one's own living. Then too you are inspiring another person who comes in touch with you. It may be your wife, it may be your husband; it may be your child, it may be your neighbor. The American government has passed a law that Jains are free from any future military draft. Jains are not able to kill human beings. They cannot even kill a chicken.
L.M.: They can't even serve in the military.
S.C.: They will never serve because they are useless. They are not able to kill.
L.M.: We should all be so useless.
S.C.: Then you don't need war.
L.M.: No, we don't. Death however stands out as an event in our lives that is filled with mystery to some degree. Many of us also experience some fear over the question of death, our own death.
S.C.: Death is, once you go deep down into yourself. Ultimately, you realize that you have taken the body to complete this mission. Whatever is left out, left unfinished, you will take another body to finish. And also, what you have done in this life will result in the next life. So my life has not been given to me by God, or somebody else. What I have done previously-according to that, I got my parents and my life. What you sow, that you reap. If you plant a mango tree, a mango comes; if you plant a bitter lemon tree, a bitter lemon comes. Karma is nothing but what we do with thoughts, words, and actions. It is the result of our actions. I call it consequence. Life is nothing but a consequence of what we have done.
L.M.: Does that fit in with what you were saying about the teaching of relativity?
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