I And Mine: [01.15] - I And My Mind - The Starting Point Of Non-Violence

Published: 29.10.2005
Updated: 02.07.2015

I consider myself imperfect. Despite that, I strongly feel like being perfect if someone points at my imperfection. For a moment, the thought of imperfection vanishes. Why does it happen so? Perhaps because one who points at my perfection does so, while keeping in mind my perfection. He has a certain mental image of my perfection, and so he points at my imperfection. If he had in his mind my imperfection and pointed at it, I would not forget that I am imperfect.

I believe in non-violence. Occasionally I practise it also, but it would be sheer vanity if I were to think that I have ever imbibed non-violence having completely vanquished the long-inhered instinct for violence. All that I can claim is that I am following the path of non-violence. I would have answered the question - when and where will I reach? - if I had been connected only with the present. It is connected with my past and therefore the utmost I can say is that I am going along the way to non-violence.

My dear critic, the only thing I can tell you is that I am not rigidly traditional. I consider only those waters pure, which are not still, and I concede that water held still in a pit loses its purity.

I do not subscribe to the mentality of remaining as I am or unchanged, for the simple reason that in it I see the germs of violence.

‘I am imperfect and want to be perfect' this alone is the starting point of my non-violence. The imperfect will turn perfect, when what is, ceases to be, and what is not, comes into being. This is my self-criticism born of my own writing.

Sources
  • I And Mine by Acharya Mahaprajna
  • Edited by Muni Dulahraj ji
  • Translated by R.P. Bhatnagar, formerly Prof. Dept. of English at Jaipur University
  • Published by Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, Ladnun, India, 1st Edition, 1995

Page glossary
Some texts contain  footnotes  and  glossary  entries. To distinguish between them, the links have different colors.
  1. Non-violence
  2. Violence
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