Training In Nonviolence - Theory & Practice: Introduction

Development is man’s nature. He has a natural desire to make progress. He doesn’t want to remain what he is. He wants to make strides. Hence we will consider development as a natural human tendency. Development has many directions - a particular direction creates a good environment for man and another one creates problems. Development depends on our outlook as to what we want and what life we want to live. Sometimes our life is marked by renunciation and sometimes by self-restraint. Today it seems that self-restraint has become secondary, renunciation has lost its value and intellectual development and economic development have become the main objectives of man’s life. Material development and the entire area of physical development or economic development have emerged as the most powerful factors of our life. Today self-restraint and renunciation have paled into insignificance. They have all gone behind the curtain. That is why problems are being created. One of the reasons is that the number of human beings and living creatures far exceeds the number of material objects available on the planet. If we look at it from an ecological point of view, we will come to know that material objects are in scarcity and those who want to consume them are in large numbers. Then how can there be a balance between the two? It is impossible. Hence, let us try to find out the causes of the problems that are multiplying.