Play Videos

Support this site

The money generated from the website will help us improve the website. Use our shopping center to make your online purchases from today.

The Concepts of Ahimsa or Nonviolence

Index Page

by Jayaram V

Ahimsa means without violence. In physical terms it means nonviolence. However, in the religious philosophies of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism it has much wider spiritual connotation and forms an integral aspect of their social, ethical and spiritual practices. While for centuries, Hindus, Jains and Buddhists practiced nonviolence for their spiritual advancement, Mahatma Gandhi added a new dimension to it in modern times when he transformed its principles into a viable and effective instrument of political will against the oppressive rule of the British in India. In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions the concept of nonviolence is translated into the practice of the following virtues:

non-injury to all living beings
not causing pain and suffering to others including plants and animals.
compassion towards all living creatures
abstaining from animal and human sacrifices
cultivation of forgiveness, universal love and friendliness
non-violent reaction to violent thoughts, words and actions
mental and verbal nonviolence towards self and towards others
abstaining from meat eating
abstaining from hunting, animal fights and similar practices in which animals are subjected to cruelty and suffering.

Theological Justification of Nonviolence

According to Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions, all living beings have their own destinies to fulfill and are subject to the laws of karma and cycle of births and deaths. Killing a living being interferes with its destiny and spiritual progression. Unless otherwise sanctioned by scriptures, the act of killing is therefore a bad karma with unhappy consequences for those who indulge in it. Although beings contain souls, or according to Buddhism a persona, that transmigrates from one body to another during rebirth and souls are not subject to pain or suffering or death, the very act of killing someone physically is fraught with terrible consequences for those who indulge in it. Even unintentional killing will lead to unhappy consequences.

There are clear scriptural injunctions in all these religions against nonviolence. Nonviolence is one of the five percepts of Buddhism, which in turn constitute the right Action of the Buddhist middle path. The monastic code of Buddhism however permits eating certain types of meat just as the law books of Hinduism permit eating meat of certain animals and birds. In Jainism the practice of nonviolence reaches its culmination. Nonviolence constitute one of the five anuvratas or littlie vows to be taken by every Jain including the lay Jains before beginning their spiritual journey leading to full monk-hood. According to Jainism all life is sacred. Each each and every object, both living and nonliving contains soul. Intentional or unintentional violence against any life form results in negative karma. The only way one can save one's soul is by protecting other souls from destruction. Mahavira, declared that stones, wind and water had souls and suffered from pain just as the humans, plants and animals. So no injury should be caused to them. The Jain monks advise people to practice verbal, mental and physical nonviolence. Jains eat during day time only and cover their mouths with a muslin cloth so that they would not accidentally or unintentionally swallow or harm any insects or germs while eating food or breathing air. Even water need to be taken with care so that the soul residing in it is not subjected to unnecessary pain and suffering. The concept of nonviolence also puts restrictions on the professions Jains may pursue. For example those who want to observe the vow of nonviolence strictly cannot practice any profession that involves killing and destruction such as farming and carpentry which involve destruction, from the Jain perspective, in the form of ploughing of the land and cutting of the wood. Ascetic traditions played an important role in the emergence of nonviolence as a core concept in Hinduism. According to the Yogasutras of Patanjali nonviolence or abstaining from violence is one of the five yamas or abstentions. The Bhagavadgita declares nonviolence as one of the virtues of a person born with divine nature and one of the penances of the human body. ¹

The Practice of Nonviolence

While Nonviolence was recognized as a religious and spiritual virtue by Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, it was practiced mostly by the followers of Jainism and Buddhism and by only certain sections of Hindu society. The priestly community, which originally sanctioned meat eating on certain occasions during vedic period, abstained from meat eating and killing animals for sacrificial purposes from the post vedic period onwards. This was the result of the growing importance of ascetic traditions within Hinduism. But meat eating was common among other castes. The royal families engaged in frequent hunting expeditions for pleasure and for meat. The kings performed animal and human sacrifices to appease certain gods. Animal sacrifices were common among the rural people. Animal fights constituted a popular form of entertainment. For serious crimes, criminals were punished with physical torture, hunger and death. The Arthashastra recommends just punishment that should be neither excessive nor mild and prescribes branding of the face, banishment and life long servitude in the mines for certain types of offenses. Torture was the common means to obtain confession from the criminals. The lower castes and slaves were often subjected to inhuman and discriminatory treatment.² Self-immolation was popular among certain ascetic traditions. In Jainism it was considered a virtue. According to Greek sources, women indulged in self-immolation or practice of sati on the demise of their husbands.

Nonviolence as a Political Strategy

Except during the British rule, in the 4000 years of Indian history, in the affairs of the state, neither the Buddhists, nor the Hindus nor the Jains met violence with nonviolence. The kings and emperors engaged themselves in regular wars for one reason or the other and maintained huge armies. Wherever the armies marched they left behind a trail of destruction. Asoka was one notable exception. Although he led many violent campaigns in the early part of his reign, after the Kalinga war in which a lot of blood was shed, he decided to follow the concept of nonviolence in letter and spirit. He declared non injury to living beings as an important aspect of his law of piety. Asoka was but an exception among the Indian rulers. The rest fought wars for monetary, political or religious reasons and treated the vanquished as they pleased, either with kindness, or with ruthlessness or with political expediency. In his lifetime the Buddha tried to prevent wars between warring clans, but his influence did not last for long. The Bhagavadgita is clear about the duty and responsibility of a soldier in the battle field. According to the scriptures, it is the obligatory duty of every kshatriya who participates in a war to oppose the enemy and do his part in protecting the sacred dharma as a sacrificial act without worrying about the consequences or the fruit of his actions.

Nonviolence and Mahatma Gandhi

Due credit should go to Mahatma Gandhi for making nonviolence a political creed and an important strategy in India's struggle for independence from the British rule. Gandhi's non-violence was the non-violence of the brave and courageous, implemented not out of weakness or fear but out of courage and moral superiority. He encouraged people to respond to the violent measures of the British rulers with nonviolence, however difficult it might be, because he believed that the British sense of justice would ultimately prevail and they would yield to the perseverant but nonviolent demands of millions of Indians for freedom. Gandhi's nonviolence was part of his satyagraha or fight for truth and he wanted to extend the concept to other areas in life and society. John G. Arapura in his book the Spirituality of Ahimsa' (Nonviolence): traditional and Gandhian, writes about Gandhian approach to non-violence in the following words. ³

This Sanskrit word, universally translated to mean "nonviolence," has a great depth of meaning that is not expressed by the English equivalent. Like many Sanskrit words of philosophical and ethical usage, it is poly-dimensional in its importance. Ahimsa' has been mentioned in many ancient Hindu words, including the Bhagavadgita'.

The practice of ahimsa' is perhaps best known by the works of Mahatma Gandhi. He, in the quest of how humans may become like God, resorted to the idea of various incarnations, that is, evolutionary, spiritual and philosophical "stages" towards perfection.

However, Gandhi took the ideal of divine perfection in human form away from the mythological past and placed it in the undetermined future pf every person's possibility, that is, not as an object of hard-to-reach worship but as an ideal goal for everyone.

Gandhi insisted on the practical aspects of self-realization, wherein "practical" referred not to that which is possible on a theoretical level, but that which should be rendered into actual observance regardless of its difficulty. The realm in which all this takes place starts with one's neighbors and extending to all the outer limits of reality.

Gandhi on Non Violence

The following are excerpts on nonviolence from the writings of Mahatma Gandhi.⁴

If one does not practice non-violence in one's personal relations with others, and hopes to use it in bigger affairs, one is vastly mistaken. Non-violence like charity must begin at home.

But if it is necessary for the individual to be trained in non-violence, it is even more necessary for the nation to be trained likewise. One cannot be non-violent in one's own circle and violent outside it. Or else, one is not truly non-violent even in one's own circle; often the non-violence is only in appearance. It is only when you meet with resistance, as for instance, when a thief or a murderer appears, that your non-violence is put on its trail. You either try or should try to oppose the thief with his own weapons, or you try to disarm him by love. Living among decent people, your conduct may not be described as a non-violent.

Mutual forbearance is non-violence. Immediately, therefore, you get the conviction that non-violence is the law of life, you have to practice it towards those who act violently towards you, and the law must apply to nations as individuals. Training no doubt is necessary. And beginnings are always small. But if the conviction is there, the rest will follow.

II.

I am an irrepressible optimist. My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop non-violence. The more you develop it in your own being, the more infectious it becomes till it over-whelms your surroundings and by and by might over sweep the world.

I have known from early youth that non-violence is not a cloistered virtue to be practiced by the individual for his peace and final salvation, but it is a rule of conduct for society if it is to live consistently with human dignity and make progress towards the attainment of peace for which it has been yearning for ages past.

To practice non-violence in mundane matters is to know its true value. It is to bring heaven upon earth. There is no such thing as the other world. All works are one. There is no 'here' and no 'there'. As Jeans has demonstrated, the whole universe including the most distant stars, invisible even through the most powerful telescope in the world, is compressed in an atom.