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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision
Mahavira's concept of non-violence encompassed the universe - human beings as well as all other organisms. Cruelty is not physical, but is innate, inborn. Compassion to all needs to be practised, he said.
In the past three thousand years, fifteen thousand wars have been fought. Among all creatures human beings have the capacity to annihilate their fellow-beings. If there is a nuclear war today, there will be a nuclear winter and the entire human race will be frozen to death. This reminds one of an incident from the life of Maxim Gorky, a Russian writer. He talked to the villagers about the achievements of science. He said science had helped man to fly in space and to fathom the depths of oceans. Once, when he was discoursing on wonders of science, an old villager shot back saying: "You are right. Science has shown us how to fly and how to reach the bottom of a sea, but has it taught us how to live in peace on this planet ?" Gorky had no answer. Mahavira has taught us how to live, has shown us the way to good living. We live today in perpetual danger of a war, war with weapons of mass destruction ! There are a variety of bombs, each one capable of killing thousands at one trial! There is a stockpile of 30,000 nuclear weapons to decimate the human race in a jiffy. Violence has become a way of life and is seen in each and every act of a being. The mass media have played a negative role in inflaming our passions, in providing an impetus to violence. Human kind is in the grip of hunger, but money is spent on fashioning weapons of destruction, on planning war strategies rather in removing hunger and poverty. People live in a state of fear, terror and insecurity. Nations talk of war and prepare for war. Hence the need for non-violence.
Non-violence is a way of life. It comes from within. In the
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