Lord Mahavir says that the path to liberation (moksha) is where, one’s intentions, from within, is that of complete non-violence. Only when there is ahinsa, there is a path of liberation. Along with the religion of ahinsa, Lord Mahavir had also propagated the principle of ‘A-mari’. Ahinsa means that I will not hurt anyone, this is a mental and an internal intention and ‘A-mari’, means that I will not hurt those I see before me. Bhagwan Mahavir and those who followed him went around spreading the principle of ‘A-mari’. If a king came to surrender to the Lord, he would proclaim ‘A-mari’ throughout his kingdom.
How can you apply the principle, ‘Ahinsa is the highest religion’ into your life? You can start in this manner: First thing in the morning, when you wake up, recall the God of your faith or the Soul within you, the Supreme Soul (parmatma) and keeping this God as your witness, make a sincere wish and say: “I do not want to hurt any living being even in the slightest degree through my mind, speech and body”. By practicing this everyday, this intention will take root in your heart and it will pervade every pore in your body. Despite this if you happen to hurt someone, you should repent sincerely, and you accomplish just this much, you will attain liberation in one or at the most, two to three lifetimes! But first you must decide on such a goal for yourself. In order to attain complete ahinsa, you must keep this intention in your awareness. ‘In the face of violence (hinsa), maintain non-violence (ahinsa)’, this is what the Lord has taught us. Violence can never be stopped with violence. It can only be stopped with non-violence.
If a bedbug or a mosquito bites you, can you kill it? If someone comes to our ‘hotel’ to eat but leaves hungry, would you feel good? If you do not have the strength to allow them to feed on you, you must catch the insect and take them outside but you should never harm them because one way or another they will not leave without biting you! A person has the right to kill only if he can create that life otherwise he has no right whatsoever!
No one in the world has the power to interfere with you. No one is at fault in this world. The fault is your own. Any events that you experience in your life, are echoes of your own interference. If you did not interfere in the first place, then not even a single mosquito would bite. If you stopped your interference, then everything would stop. When a mosquito bites, people blame the mosquito but what happens when a thorn pricks you? The Lord does not see any difference between a thorn and the mosquito! That which bites is not the Soul. They are all ‘thorns’! Why do people not see fault in the thorn? It is because you see the mosquito as living and so you say, “It bites me”, but primarily you are under an illusion (branti) and so you see the entire world in the same way. The supreme Soul would never punish anyone; it is the non-soul that punishes. If a stone falls from a hilltop and hits you on the head, with whom would you get angry? And if someone were to throw even a small pebble at you, you would wage war on him! Why? It is because of your illusionary vision (brant drashti).
No one can steal from the one who has never stolen through his mind, speech or actions, in his entire life. No one would be able to take anything even if his house were left open. If you are firm in your resolve of ‘No matter what, I do not want to do any hinsa’, then no one can cause you any harm.
This is absolute justice. There can be no changes in this. You are the Supreme Soul yourself, so how can anyone bother you? When people bother you it is because of your own blunders and mistakes form your past life. The fault is your own.
The Lord has said that the greatest hinsa in this world is that of kashays (to have anger, pride, attachment and greed)! With kashay one binds sin (paap). Just one kashay will perpetuate a cycle of infinite lifetimes. To do kashay, to do artadhyan (to have internal worries or suffering without anyone’s knowledge) and to do raudradhyan (to have internal suffering or worries but also to derive satisfaction or pleasure in making others suffer because of your own suffering) is violence against the Soul (atmahinsa). The intention to hurt is greater hinsa than the actual act of hurting.
As far as diet is concerned, those who want liberation have no right to eat anything other than ek-indriya food (one-sense food). And if one wants to delve deeper into this, then there is nothing better than to refrain from eating root crops and eating after dark.
In business, it is regarded as terrible raudradhyan, when those with greater intelligence (buddhi) swindle those with lesser intelligence. Buddhi is light, and to use that light to swindle or take advantage of someone through your advise, is tantamount to charging someone a fee for showing them the way in the darkness by holding a flash light out for them.
With just the following intention: “I do not want to do any hinsa towards any living being, cause hinsa or support others to do hinsa,” and “Let not any living being be hurt by my mind, speech and body even in the slightest degree”, one becomes ahinsak. This can be considered fulfillment of the greatest vow of non-violence. When a person’s mind becomes absolutely resolved with these intentions and he remains sincere to them and does not sway from them, that is called the supreme vow (mahavrat). And for the one, who decides on these intentions but does not stick to them, that is called anuvrat (a small vow).
This world is definitely not without hinsa at all, but when a person himself becomes ahinsak, then the world will become ahinsak too. Without the establishment of an ‘empire’ of ahinsa, keval gnan (absolute knowledge) can never be attained and whatever awareness there is, it can never reach completeness. Within every living being there is the presence of the Supreme Lord (parmatma), so then who can you hurt?
