Acharya Tulsi
People say this is the age of science and technology. It seems to me that there are two things particularly on the increase in this age - accidents and crimes. Hardly a day passes where there might not have been an accident. Nobody knows when and how an accident takes place. "Death, when it has decided, opens the door anywhere. It can easily reach where it wants even after passing through the impregnable rampart". These words of Tirthankaras and the learned men, backed by experience, manifest their truth at every step.
On the Deepavali day, there was a fire in a shop of fire crackers filled with gunpowder. There were many other shops around. There were shops of firecrackers and also shops selling other goods. The flames of the fire spread. Many shops were caught in those flames. In one shop there were five persons, including adults and children. They brought down the shutters for the fear that the shop may be caught in the fire. The shop was closed. There was a little opening left at the bottom. Outside the shop the smoke of the explosives spread which entered into this closed shop through that little opening. In trying to save the shop from catching fire, the shop was filled with that smoke. Five persons in that shop died. There was no witness left to report about their condition or state of mind in their last moments.
Such tragic incidents keep on taking place. There is a train accident somewhere or an air crash somewhere else. Sometimes a bus and a car collide or sometimes a truck and a Maruti run into each other. Someone gets crushed under a truck, or someone falls from a bus because of jostling. Somewhere a scooter overtures and somewhere a bus falls into a river or a nalla. Somewhere there are floods, somewhere an earthquake, somewhere a cyclone, somewhere a volcanic eruption. And heaven knows what other kinds of accidents occur! If man finds no other reason, he himself wants to jump into death. So many different ways of committing suicide are also developed. Looking at them we have got to say that this is the age of accidents.
The increasing crimes are a matter of concern. More than this, thought needs to be given to the causes that lead to increase in crimes. What is it that provokes man to become a criminal? What is the provocation for murder, physical scuffles, brigandage, loot and plunder, rape, kidnapping and such activities? How has man become so cruel? He minces human beings like carrot or radish. He pours bullets on groups of innocent people or blasts them off. Such incidents take place not under the cover of the night but in broad daylight. They take place not in lonely and deserted places but right in centre of the cities. Spectators just stand watching in stunned silence. They are seized with such terror that no words emanate from their mouths nor do their hands move into action. The criminal, without fear and panic, reaches the destination absolutely unbothered. Some mutterings start after that. How long would such things go on?
The person who fall victim to such accidents departs from the world. He leaves behind him his family grieving and lamenting. These accidents are not deliberate, but there are some causes behind them. A major cause is liquor" Drivers get drunk and drive recklessly their buses, trucks and cars, resulting in accidents. One of the rules is to abstain from the consumption of intoxicating substances. This small rule can help averting many big accidents. If only man would understand its significance! Some accidents are natural. Some take place because the machine has developed some fault. It may seem impossible to avoid such accidents. But why should it be made impossible to avoid whatever can be avoided?
The numbers of crimes cannot be brought down without refining the mental attitudes which are at the root of acts of murders, abductions etc. So long as the mind is not reformed, one's feet would continue to move along wrong paths. If the mind is healthy, man can do well to himself and can also remove the sufferings of others. Accepting the path of anuvrat is a small attempt to make the mind healthy. Discussing about anuvrat, studying literature about anuvrat and keeping in contact with people who are following the path of anuvrat —these are the three steps of refining one's mental attitudes. If anuvrat permeates through the life of the people through these steps, it is possible to change the course which the criminals have been following.
