As improper thoughts, emotions and actions such as those of violence etc., whether they are done (indulged in), caused to be done or abetted, whether present in mild, medium or intense degree result in endless pain and ignorance; so there is the necessity of pondering over the opposites.

Yogasutra of Patanjali

Battle with yourself! Of what use is fighting others? He who conquers himself by himself will win happiness.

Uttaradhyayan Sutra

The solution of our problems cannot come from science; it can come only from man himself. As long as human beings are systematically trained to commit crimes against mankind, the mentality thus created can only lead to catastrophe again and again. Our only hope lies in refusing any action that may serve the preparation or purpose of war.

Albert Einstein

Be not overcome of evil
But overcome evil with good.

‘Letter to the Romans’ by St. Paul (12. 21)

The Thought

It has been a popular belief that the human brain is about a dozen times as large as that of any monkey, which itself is the largest in the animal kingdom. Its size has been considered a factor responsible for its superiority. The human brain is certainly large as compared with that of many animals but not the largest. The size is not what imparts it the unique intelligence. It is the much greater complexity that makes it far superior to any other brain in the entire animal kingdom. In fact it is the most intricate and powerful of all works of nature known to date.

The unique thing is that most of this additional size and complication is devoted to memory, association, and speech. As far as the medium of observation is concerned, man is almost exactly same as the monkey. He essentially smells, hears, tastes, touches, and sees very much as a monkey does; only his reactions are vastly different.

Man is different from animals basically on two counts: the versatility in communication due to highly developed vocal organs, and the ability to think and conceive what is not physically evident. The human brain is not just a pulsating mass of flesh and blood; it is the only physical entity that is conscious of its own existence. It is the source of thoughts, feelings, dreams, emotions, ideas, imagination etc. and has an astonishing capacity to communicate or put into action all these abstracts with miraculous clarity.

The human mind is a sponge that absorbs all available information. It is a mighty computer that processes and stores all this information. It is an individual who creates and exerts its own influence. It is affected by a variety of outside forces and in turn it also influences these outside forces. It is connected with the remote past as well as the faraway future through its history, and the science of genetics. According to the Jains the links with past and future are due to karmic bondage. The mind is both master as well as slave of the body it lives in.

It is the information received through physical senses that assists mind in its functioning. The mind survives and grows on a continuous flow of information. Information is for brain what food is for body, a perpetual necessity for sustenance and growth. This continuous flow of information is sorted out, classified and stored as knowledge in the ever-expanding vault of our brain. Neither the smell of food is simple enough to be left out nor the twinkling of the faraway galaxies complicated enough to be beyond our capacity.

Over and above this infinite capacity and craving for knowledge, we have been endowed with voice and hands to translate knowledge into action. The progress from the wheel to space flight is but an insignificant example.

The mind manifests through the body. The interdependence of mind and body is almost complete. The mind gets majority of information through the body and the body is controlled and guided in all its actions by the mind. In outward appearance we observe only the gross, physically evident interactions and consider the activities of mind and body as separate, beyond the level of coordinating the physical movement.

In reality the mind and the body are so intimately interconnected through the nervous system that even the routine and automatic functions of internal organs are affected by the mind and vice versa. Whatever we think affects our body and whatever we do affects our mind.

It would be interesting to note that in homeopathy the root cause of all diseases is Psaura, a term defined as ‘evil thinking’. Based on this hypothesis, a complete and successful science of treatment has been developed. One who becomes free of all evil thoughts does not fall ill. Also according to homeopathy the Psaura is transferred genetically. As such, by thinking evil a person is endangering his progeny as well, through genetically transferred harmful effects.

Modern medical science also considers that almost all ailments are somehow or other connected with the brain. Some diseases, like hypertension, diabetes, cardiac deficiencies etc. are direct results of mental tension.

Stanford psychologist Carl Thoresen, Mt. Zion Hospital cardiologist Meyer Friedman, and Harvard psychiatrist James Gill studied 862 non-smoking, non-diabetic patients under 65 years of age, who had suffered at least one heart attack in the past, All of these displayed signs of ‘Type A’ behaviour which means self destructive ambition, impatience, and free floating hostility toward trivial matters in their every day life.

While all were given cardiological counseling, 592 patients also took part in a series of psychological exercises, designed to alter their ‘Type A’ tendencies. After three years, the recurring heart attack rate for the psychologically counseled group was roughly half that of the control group. Both groups still suffered the same rate of fatal heart attacks.

But Friedman believes that the reduction of non-fatal heart attacks is a step in the right direction. “Cardiologists have to start looking at what is going on in a patient’s life”, he says. Affairs of the mind, he maintains, are just as important as commonly accepted risk factors like smoking and blood pressure. This is an example of simple and direct effect of the activity of mind on the body. There are much subtler and deeper effects that have to be considered before evolving the disciplines; and the Jains have done that in detail.

As already emphasized, thought is the starting point of action. In order that the action remains faultless, the faults of the thought should be removed. The attitude of diverting thoughts from impure to pure is the most important and central factor on the path of Ahimsa. It covers every facet of the activity of human mind.

In the simplest terms, this attitude prescribes that one should not think ill of someone, should not indulge in evil thinking and should avoid thoughts which tend to harm someone. To be brief, the thoughts should be constructive and pleasant and not destructive and unpleasant. The four passions, described earlier (anger, lust, illusion and greed), should be diffused.

As violence breeds violence, evil thoughts breed evil thoughts. For a peaceful and healthy life at individual, social, national, and international levels, it is important that this attitude of diffusing evil thoughts is encouraged and practiced.

The Jain canons have described in detail the results of evil thoughts so as to discourage people from indulging in such thinking. To apply these to the social framework should be the work of priests, preachers and propagators of different times. It is always effective to elaborate and define the applied aspects according to the prevalent circumstances, otherwise the intensity is lost and such matters remain only as the luxury of the academicians.

There was a time when social structure was simple and as such, simpler definitions and interpretations were sufficient to make people understand and accept the right path. Now that society has become much more complex, and a storehouse of knowledge of the physical world has been opened, the applied interpretations must be modified in terms understandable and acceptable to modern man.

The social life of an individual is dependent on an inflow of information into brain through physical senses as well as the activity indulged in through the body. The mind is the coordinator of this inflow and outflow of information and the link between body and soul. This integrated activity is what we call behaviour.

The continued and ever increasing interaction between individuals and outside factors confuses a person. A distorted relationship between him and society starts taking shape. The moment an individual starts dwelling in the misconception that he is small and insignificant as compared with society or the outside world, and he has hardly any influence, his journey into the realm of illusions commences. He either falls into the rut of inactivity and confirms his insignificance or launches himself into hyperactivity to prove himself superior by pushing others into insignificance. Both these activities are the result of drifting away from the self or soul.

Once the direction of thoughts is turned towards self, the importance of the individual starts revealing itself. He realizes that as a component of the vast (group, society, country, humanity or nature) he has his own significant contributions towards the vastness. The slightest change in him starts a chain of actions, which eventually push the whole towards progression or regression. It is this realization that imparts a sense of responsibility in the individual and guides him towards constructive activities. If one really wants to understand this vital importance of one so called insignificant individual component, he should look towards the functioning of nuclear weapons. A change in a tiny, individual atom triggers the chain reaction, which turns it into the source of holocaust.

Simple social activities like lying, gossiping, cheating an individual, criticizing for the sake of criticism, succumbing to greed are the starting points of more complex problems. The attitude of directing thoughts towards purity includes erasing these dark spots from the mind and soul.

Human survival and progress depend not only on the extremely acute reasoning powers but also on the balanced interaction of these powers with other mental faculties. The emotional reactions play a very important role in human life. It appears that this emotional competence is the factor that makes us the most adaptable of the species in the animal world.

As compared with any other species we are much more responsive and constructive in our dealings with others. Our capacity of endurance is phenomenal. Since homo-sapiens first walked naked under the sky and started tackling the elements with bare hands and a mind having unprecedented, dormant potentialities, we have been using individual consciousness, determination and cooperation as our most useful traits. These vital mental attributes sprout spontaneously from the Ahimsa discipline.

Our actions are as dependent on past events or experience as on planning for the future. It is this unique capacity that makes humans capable of achieving extremes, both towards progress and regress. The regression pushes us down towards ghastly bestial attributes like cunning, violence, ferocity, etc. Progress is indicated by good conduct and expression of kindly emotions.

The process is not as simple as it sounds. It involves a whole lot of experience and continued learning for generations. Emotions guide man towards better learning and better use. The powers of communication and capacity to accumulate and modify knowledge give him chances of improving his behaviour.

But these same assets may also take him towards bestiality. The two extremes a human being is capable of reaching are the feeling of romantic love and the capacity of legalizing murder, as in warfare. When indulging in war the predominant factor at work is not the animal instinct but the human faculty of reason. The instinctive feeling of natural and need based aggression towards intruders is thoughtfully converted into glorified, legalized murder in name of nationalism, communalism, racialism, etc., with the help of the immense thinking and manipulating capacity of human brain.

The manipulators of human mind, through propaganda, propagate that violence and brute strength are the best means of settling disputes. They have been persistently active for thousands of years, since men first started throwing rocks at each other, without reaching any conclusion. During last 5,000 years more than 12,000 wars have been recorded in the history of mankind. Since the Second World War, a period of comparative peace, 150 small wars have been fought, with some 20 million casualties. The total waste of human life and resources would add up, to mind boggling figures. The United Nations estimates that roughly half of the world’s total scientific and technical force is busy in improving available armament and developing new ones.

The fiscal figures given by United Nations are even more revealing. Since 1900 the total money spent on armaments, not including the Second World War amounts to 8,000 billion US dollars. Today the planetary expenditure is approaching around one trillion US dollars per annum. This is more or less equal to the entire amount of the debt burden of developing countries. If such amounts were utilized, with the same zeal, to divert the thoughts of the masses towards peaceful and constructive activities, the results would justify the investment.

It is appalling that such enormous amounts of money - billions of dollars per day - are being spent to improve the aggressive capacities of nations, while a large proportion of the human population is literally starving and millions are dying from hunger, disease and famine. On the pretext of defending ourselves from a certain enemy, we are pushing humanity towards total annihilation. In order to quench our selfish desires and ambitions, we are sincerely and painstakingly moving towards self-destruction.

The capacity to perceive and conceive is a dormant tool having tremendous potential energy that can be used as a force to annihilate values or to foster and enhance them. We are at the top of the animal kingdom. The most and the best evolved of the species, we still have the animal within. The dividing line between beast and man is so fine that more often then not, while polishing our human traits, we involuntarily hone our bestial cunning and ferocity beyond even those of a beast.

Besides being the master of body, the brain is also the link between soul and body. The awareness of the entity life became possible only with the evolution of the human brain. It is this specialized and complex bio-instrument that can explore the inner depths and feel the presence of the life force pulsating within the ordinarily unfathomable void of inner space, where the two primordial forces of life and matter first interact. The awareness of the presence of that life force, the soul (chetan), is what launched the human being on the spiritual path of ultimate purity.

The inner discipline, attained through this attitude of diverting thoughts from evil to good helps aiming the inner forces in the right direction. No matter at what level one is Ahimsa is always helpful. Even if one is not at the level where spiritual heights are achievable, Ahimsa at least prevents from regression into the abominable world of beasts.