ers Non-violence or Ahimsa is the virtue of never causing pain or ight, word or action, It is one le, trusting even if they are young or h spect and understand the feelings of all creatures ~ animals, birds or insects — who cannot speak, Jesus Christ preached that “Real beauty lies in doing good against evil, loving your enemies and Praying for those who Persecute you, so that you a virtue by which peace and harmony Hs chaotic world. Every person of the world must decide that no one Should believe in the philosophy of ‘Live and Let Live’ Mahatma Gandhi won the freedom struggle with the weapon of non-violen the brave persons. If a ce, Non-violence is the highest virtue of weak person shows lack of violence out of fear, it shall be termed as cowardice but, if a brave person pardons a wrong doer, it is non-violence. All other virtues are incorporated in the Personality of an individual who has faith in non- violence. Truth, kindness, forgiveness and benevolence are the virtues which are based on non- violence. Tolerance is the reward of non-violence. Lord Buddha's purity of heart was gifted to him by the virtue of non-violence. According to \tma Gandhi, non-violence is embedded in cert chastity, truth and is embedded i ‘ain values like chastity, trutl to Mahatm: 7 fearlessness. Non-violence is vastly different from being a coward. Deliberate restraint to bring about a change of attitude in the opponent is termed as ‘non-violence’. Being non-violent requiresa lot of inner strength, courage and, above all, tolerance. It is based on the bedrock of ‘truth’ and taps the inner resources of ‘soul power’ or ‘love power’. Non-Violence is not Cowardice The concept of non-violence was very dear to Mahatma Gandhi. Some gies of Gujarat Vidyapich University asked him, “Boys tease us very ey ow can we retaliate by non-violence?” Kishore Lal Bhai was with qui when che girs were talking to him. He suggested that when | jlecharactered boys tried to tease them, they should beat them black 1 Ae plue with their sandals. The girls, however, wanted to know |\ 1 aity to treat the situation in a non-violent way. When Gandhiji | yas consulted on this issue, 1 Mances even inflicting injury with a dagger would be cermed as non-violence does not teach one to be a ithout reacting. he suggested that under such cireum- 1 inon-violence’. Thus, " QGward and suffer the insults inflicted on you odds of life. It is the best principle of life. It Non-violence is an excellent weapon to face all the peaceful environment for is the path of progress and the gateway to peace. Violence may create a very short period but the peace established by non-violence is everlasting. mised or suppressed by violence. As fire cannot be extinguished by fire, violence cannot be mini destruction. So it is our moral Violence creates fear and fear causes war and war causes responsibility that we must adopt the path of non-violence. Behave with others as you want them to behave with you. Do not trouble others. Avoid causing injury to others by thought, word or action. Practise tolerance and have empathy for other people. Try to understand why the other person feels that way. As discussed earlier, we should avoid watching violent films and TV shows and feed our minds only with inspiring stories of justice and non-violence. yourself to become a person who meets violence with gentleness and tolerance. Don’t give up your goodness — ' 4 man saw a bug floundering around in the wat | finger, but the bug stung | stung him again. On seeing thi ‘him, But the man said, “It is #1 ' should I give up my nature to love just because it er. He decided to save it by stretching out his him, The man still cried ro get che bug out of the water, but it s, his friend told him to stop saving the bug that kept stinging fhe nature of the bug to sting. It is my nature to love. Why is the nature of the bug to sting?” ment of quarrels. Accept corrections with a spirit of non- ker in any tense or disturbed situation. Never participate ff violence. Counteract violence inflicted on you by non- | Use peaceful discussion for the settle [] violence. Play the role of a peace-mal \ with people bent on committing acts o! d violent conduct. BDA§ ala meets Gautam Buddha angulimata meet ; d | Ahimeaka was a brilliane student, He excelled in all his subjects, Because of this SQ { the other seudents became jealous. They made up stories to make the teacher believe | Ahimsaka was evil. The teacher believed these lies and decided to get rid of Ahimsaka, re ceacher decided co give Ahimsaka an impossible tas 1e wo! ver returi | School The teacher told Ahimsaka thas, in order te geahunes he meee natn 1 chousand litele fingers as Gurudakshina or honorarium. Instead of giving up, Ahimedks we q our to collect one thousand little fingers. However, he soon discovered thae most ai 1 wouldn’t easily give up their little fingers. So he hid in the forest and murdered peo} 1 eae | their fingers. He found he had nowhere to store those fingers, So he put them eal tee i around Bis nec fell oleouss esas OF this gruesome necklace of fingers, he was named : 1 One day, Gautam Buddha left his monastery for the forest where Anguli ‘ ! Buddha knew Angulimala lived there, he Seance Stat faceananeal "on his on ee 1 Particular day, Angulimala only had one more finger to collect, so when he saw Budiney | entering the forest, he dashed out to murder him, claim his finger, and complete his task: Bac! | RO matter how fast he ran behind Buddha, he never seemed to be able to extch up with him, + 1 Bvencually, exhausted and angry, Angulimala screamed, “Stop!”, Buddha turned and responded ! with a smile, “I will stop. But can you tell me when will you stop your activities? You kill! persons who have not caused any harm to you?” Angulimala | had heard such a fearless voice for the first time in his life. | He was astonished to see such an excellent personality in the | forest. He was so much impressed that his entire cruelty and ! violence vanished within no time. He threw away his} weapons and kneeled at the feet of Buddha. He followed | Buddha back to his monastery and became his disciple. He | gave up the path of cruelty and violence. \ 1 From this incident, we can see that anyone's life can be transformed even if it may seem impossible. If a murderer can become a monk, think of how much easier itis for us to improve | . our minds, habits and lives. Thus, we observe that the power of non-violence is great and the development of non-violent attitude can enable us to win over the world. bbiBibrenenbe » Ahimsa or non-violence is the virtue of never causing pain or harm to any living being by thought, word or action, > Ahimsa is the embodiment of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” > We can develop the attitude of non-violence by practising tolerance and having empathy for other people. We should try to understand why the other person feels that way. > We should avoid watching violent films and TV shows and feed our minds only with inspiring stories of justice and non-violence. Mita LY fa dl Qa leAGaRwal — { Page No, Day