The
growth of ahimsa : four stages
8. The divine qualities on one
side, the demonic on the other - thus the two armies stand arrayed
against each other. Of these, we should leave the demonic qualities
and join the divine qualities. The divine qualities of satya
and ahimsa have been developed from time immemorial. And
between then and now, during all this time, too, there has been
great progress.
But, even so, there is plenty of room
for further progress. We have by no means reached the end of the
process. As long as we belong to a social organism, there will be
endless opportunity for development. Though the individual
development is complete, there still remains the growth of society,
the nation and the world. Offering his own development as manure,
the individual should help society and the millions of people in the
nation to grow. Though from the beginning of time ahimsa has
been developed by man, the process of evolution is still going on.
9. It is worth studying how ahimsa
has developed. We would then understand how the life of religion
has
developed step by step and what scope there is for further growth.
In the beginning the non-violent man had to consider how to save
himself from the attacks of the violent. At first the kshatriya
class was set up for the protection of society, but it went too far
and started devouring society itself. |