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TWO THOUSAND
six hundred years ago, Mahavir swami made the revolutionary
statement: ahimsa parmodharmaha, non-violence is the
supreme religion. This one sentence, thoughtfully uttered by the
saint-saviour in the first millennium, changed the moral climate
of the Indian sub-continent for all time to come. The key to the
understanding of the psychology of violence could be found in
the simple ancient conclusion reached by Mahavir Swami that
ahimsa and peace are born in the mind of man. Nothing can be
achieved without the spiritual upliftment of the individual. A
violent mind is not the place where peace could reside. His
philosophy does not paint this world as a murky place, full of
sorrow and pain. On the contrary, the door to peace and bliss is
ever open. Just enter it. You don't even have to knock at it. A
well-known Jain Dharmacharya and philosopher of modern times
have said that bhawa parivartan, Charge at the spiritual plane,
is of crucial importance. Nothing can be achieved without curing
spiritual illness. He maintains that spiritual upliftment and
purity of mind is essentially the same thing. But this spiritual
change takes place on the condition that we have full faith in
our ista, chosen divine ideal. Once a seeker completely
identifies himself with his ista, he becomes part of that
divinity, and attains to peace and unadulterated bliss.
The
basic question then, is how to bring about inner change. How to
make - ahimsa a way of life. Ahimsa cannot be practised by the
weak. If war begins in the minds of men, peace too, according to
the Indian sprititual tradition, emanates from the chitta -
inner consciousness - of man. Ahimsa is not limited to 'not
hitting', or 'not harming' others. It is not merely conceptual
thinking. Ahimsa is the essence of a really civilised life.
Ahimsa cannot pervade our inner self unless we get rid of dross,
demeaning emotions, such as lust, anger arrogance, fear and
greed. An over ambitious man panting with desires can never rest
in peace. When corrupting and corroding desires are driven away
from our mind, ahimsa reigns in all its glory. We are at peace
with ourselves and with the society as a whole. The grand temple
of world peace could be built only on the stable foundation of
ahimsa. Only a changed man can change the world. This change
could be brought about by creating a new man, a citizen of the
world, by training the mind in mora! and spiritual discipline.
Mahavir Swami's ahimsa goes beyond our concerns for mankind. Not
only human life was precious animals, birds, even plants and
other kinds of vegetation needed man's protection. Man had no
moral authority to destroy them as they too have life. If we
destroyed nature, it will hit back in the shape of environmental
degradation threatening the very existence of man. Thus Mahavir
Swami visualised man as a part of the organic whole of the life
systems that inhabit this good, beautiful, ancient earth.
By Binod Kumar
Mishra
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