Swami Dharmananda
Nihalsinghwala, 06.03.2006
H. H. Acharyashree and Ahimsa Yatra were welcomed by residents and officials of the town. Speaking to the gathering, Acharyashree said,
“A person wants peace, but cannot live in peace. Tensions are prevailing all over the world. The main reasons of violence are anger, reactionary violence, poverty and unemployment. The greatest pleasure of human being is fearlessness, when there is no fear of any kind. But today we see fear everywhere, and due to that, the atmosphere in the society is lacking joy and happiness.
The atmosphere of fearlessness is only possible through non-violence. Peace cannot be achieved without non-violence. Where there is morality and non-violence, peace can be established. So religious people have to think afresh in this direction. Morality and non-violence should be in practice at the place of work by religious persons.
Today the position is reversed, as persons practice religion at the time of sleep, and not in the wakening state. We should think on the subject as what benefit is being derived from religion. This person is religious only who gives importance to penance, self-restraint, and non-violence in his life. Religion should settle fighting, then present as well as future life become good."
Talking about the reasons of violence, H.H. Acharyashree said that he had tried to know the reasons of violence during the Ahimsa Yatra. “The first group of reasons are ego, anger, greed and egoistic view of casteism. The other group is hunger and unemployment. There is violence going on in large scale in Bihar and Jharkhand, abduction is going on, the reason behind is greed. We cannot totally stop violence but when we have non-violence on the upper hand, the result will be increasing minimisation of violence in society.
The followers of religion should think over again, as many of them have made religion a matter of entertainment. Religion should not be limited to worship and other rituals. Where there is honesty and amity in their dealings, there is real religion. There should be new thinking about religion. New action has been taken by taking into account morality and non-violence in many places. There should be stated some non-violence training programme in Nihalsinghwala, so that children and the youth have the training from the very beginning. This way a better society can be brought up.”