From Religious Books:

State and Religion:

The conscience of man has grown with the times; and today wars are not glorified but accepted with regret. While the Axis powers still cling to wars as essential factors in the growth of societies, while they believe that power is the test of a nation's greatness, that the aim of the strong is to subjugate the weak, that aggressive war is a glory, not a crime, that whatever brings victory, fraud, treachery, terrorism, inhumanity, is justified, the Allied nations proclaim that they are obliged to wage war for the sake of peace, for the sake of building a world order in which the relations of states are so regulated as to avoid periodic wars. . . . We fight the enemy with a heart full of savage hatred, and head fortified by scientific cunning.

Religions, however, have exalted nonviolence as the supreme virtue, and acquiesced in violence on account of human imperfection. The good is never found in a pure form in this imperfect world; for its pure manifestation we must enter a world which is beyond good and evil. If the ideal has not penetrated the world as fully as we would desire, it does not follow that the ideal is to be abandoned. Absolute principles are to be related to the empirical world, which is changing and subject to human stupidity and selfishness. We must work for changes in the social situation which will make for a more adequate realization of the ideal.

Nonviolence in Indian Religions:

(In Mahabharat,) Bheeshm tells Yudhishthir that nonviolence is the highest religion, the highest penance, the highest truth, from which all other virtues proceed.(2)
Saintly souls cannot use force, for all their passions are killed; yet they are able to overpower evil.(3)
. . . (However,) the Mahabharat asks: Who is there who does not inflict violence? Even ascetics devoted to nonviolence commit violence, but by great effort they reduce it to a minimum.(4)

There is a contradiction between the desire for the perfect good and the need to take up partial tasks which seem to outrage the perfect ideal; yet this contradiction is the only way to carry things forward. It is the root of all human endeavor. We have to mediate between the supreme ideal of absolute nonviolence and the actual conditions, where we have to further the realization of the highest by means which are imperfect. These rules of religion (DHARM) are relative to the conditions of society, and may conflict with the canons of absolute goodness; but without them society will become lawless and anarchic. The absolute ideal must be brought into the context of the existing social situation; and by the interaction of the two, the evolution of society is secured.

(About one who wishes to live the spiritual life of perfection), VISHNUPURAAN says: "Regarding all with equal eye, he must be friendly to all living beings. And being devoted, he must not injure any living creature, human or animal, either in act, word or thought, and renounce all attachment." The Buddha warned his disciples against hurting or causing pain to any living being. Parshvanath enjoined on his followers the four great vows: not to injure life, to be truthful, not to steal, and to possess no property.(5)

Practical Aspects of Nonviolence:

We live in a society governed by certain laws, codes and customs which are not ideal, but have made compromises, which use armies, police and prisons. Even in such a society, we can live a life inspired by love to all men. While keeping the ideal before us and always striving towards it, the Hindu view recognizes the relative justifications of laws and institutions, because of the hardness of men's hearts. "The wise know that both DHARM (religion) and ADHARM (non-religion) are mixed with injury to others." But these institutions are stepping-stones to a better order. While we need not lose ourselves in the pursuit of an impossible perfection, we must strive perpetually to eliminate imperfection, and grow towards the ideal. . . . The ideal of AHIMSA (nonviolence) must be cherished by us as a precious goal, and deviations from it are to be accepted with regret.

The Illusions of War:

This world has suffered from much pain and cruelty from doing what we believe to be right, rather than from doing what we knew to be wrong. The pain inflicted on the world by criminals and gangsters is much less than that due to the wrongdoings of good men. Religious wars were blessed by the Church. Judicial torture was inflicted not only on criminals, but also on witnesses, as a means for extracting truth. Sweating, child labor and slavery were recognized as equitable. Wars also are regarded by good citizens as natural and harmless institutions of civilized life. But our descendants will view with shame our social behavior as nations, even as we view enforced sati or the slave trade, and the sooner we anticipate the views of our descendants the better will it be for humanity. We are kept in a state of barbarism in these matters by artificial means. The wicked are not the real danger, but the ordinary law-abiding, kindly, industrious citizens gone nationally mad because their ideas of right and wrong have been deliberately and systematically perverted.

Civilized nations are slowly beginning to recognize war as an obsolete method of obtaining decisions. The slaughter involved in modern warfare is so much out of proportion to the ends that the arguments and sentiments which have been used in the past to justify wars are no more tenable. . . . The pity and the sordidness of war lie in this: that without any evil in us we engage in it, not because we are in any way cruel, but because we mean to be kind. We engage in wars to save democracy, to win freedom for the world, to guard our women and children, to protect our hearths and homes. At least we believe so.

Even as cannibalism, head-hunting, witch-hunting and duels are regarded as anti-social, war must be regarded as a monstrous evil. We must admit that moral standards apply to states also; and actions, considered evil and unsocial in an individual, can not become right and moral when performed by state. War, which is murder and theft committed by large numbers, however necessary it may be, is an evil. . . . Modern wars with the savage weapons of assault, with the wholesale massacres of the most helpless and the least responsible elements of the population, are the worst calamity that can afflict a nation. . . . Tolstoy, in his great work War and Peace, writes: "The purpose of war is murder; its tools are spying, treason and the encouragement of treason, the ruin of the inhabitants, robbing them or stealing from them to supply the army, deceit and lies, called military ruses; the habits of the military profession are the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauch, drunkenness."

The tradition of civilization, we argue, is threatened today by a new barbarism, more formidable than anything in the past, since it possesses an infinitely stronger scientific and technical equipment. This barbarism has for its chief characteristic a social mechanization, which treats art and culture, science and philosophy, as nothing more than instruments in the struggle for power. . . . We profess different aims for our enemies, but adopt identical means. We believe that we can use cold-blooded hatred for developing love, total compulsion for attaining increased freedom. It is a competition in unscrupulousness and injustice; but all this will result in an insanity of the soul for which there is no cure. Thomas Aquinas says: "even for good ends we must pursue right paths, not wrong ones."

Mahatma Gandhi's Concept of Nonviolence:

Gandhi's nonviolence is an active force, the weapon not of the weak but of the brave. "If blood be shed, let it be our blood. Cultivate the quiet courage of dying without killing. For man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. . . . Love does not burn others, it burns itself, suffering joyfully even unto death."

Nonviolence is not acquiescence in evil. Gandhi knows that the greatest misfortune is submission to injustice, not the suffering of it. . . . Nonviolence is not doing nothing. We can resist evil by refusing to cooperate with it. Indian history is full of examples of nonviolent non-cooperation: the MAHAJANs (businessmen) who closed their shops as a protest against the unrestricted power of the king; the Brahmins of Benares who fasted as a protest against the imposition of taxes by the East India Company; the Rajput ladies who immolated themselves to save their honor from the lust of the invaders. These examples illustrate the might of the human spirit to overcome evil. Nonviolent resistance relies not on strong muscles, devastating armaments and fiendish poison gases, but on moral courage, self-control, on the gripping awareness that there is in every human being, however brutal, however personally hostile, a burning light of kindness, a love of justice, a respect for goodness and truth, which can be roused by anyone who uses the right means.

Footnotes:

(1)Religion and Society by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, George, Allen and Unwin Ltd, London, 1966.

Although, the great modern Indian philosopher, Dr. Radhakrishnan, presented these ideas several decades ago, they are still applicable in present situations. The article presents excerpts conforming to the Jain concept of nonviolence. &endash; D. C. J.
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(2)AHIMSA PARAMO DHARMAH, AHIMSA PARAMAM TAPAH

AHIMSA PARAMAM SATYAM, TATO DHARMAH PRAVARTATE

&endash; ANUSHAASAN PARVA C. IV.25

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(3) This concept intently conforms to the fundamental principles of Jainism. &endash; D. C. J.
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(4) KENA HIMSANTI JEEVAAN VAI LOKESMIN DVIJASATTAMA

BAHU SANCHINTYA IHA VAI NAASTI KASHCHID AHIMSAKAH

AHIMSAAYAASTU NIRATA YATAYO DVIJASATTAMA

KURVANTY EVAHI HIMSAAM TE YATNAAD ALPATARA BHAVET

&endash; VANAPARVA 212.32-34

It should be pointed out that ancient Indian sages and thinkers realized that a worldly being can not avoid violence completely. One can only minimize violence in one's life. &endash; D. C. J.
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(5) This implies that truth, non-stealing, purity of body and mind and non-possessiveness are essential aspects of nonviolence. &endash; D. C. J.
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