Ahimsa, an active force of love

Jan 29, 2010, 12.00am IST
Madhuji.

The doctrine of ahimsa implies living with active compassion, refraining from violence in thought, word and deed.


The belief in the supremacy of truth was not based on theoretical abstraction. To seek the truth is a striving for human perfection.

Mahavira renounced all possessions and set out to live the solitary life of a wandering mendicant, begging for food and shelter and enduring the harshest of austerities. In fasting, he abandoned all hardships and concern of the body. He wandered about, meditating for 12 years on the truth of existence to understand the nature of the Self. After 12 years of intense penance, he attained the highest knowledge called Kevala jnana, which is infinite, complete and full.


Sakyamani Gautama chose the life of a mendicant practitioner in search of satya. He mastered four significant stages of mindfulness and contemplative awareness. This mastery was in union with a series of unusual cognitions. During the first watch (evening) Gautama attained the first cognition that unfolded each of his own previous incarnations. He saw them one by one, in absolute transparency. In the second watch (midnight), he acquired the divine eye, with which he could penetrate into the truth about the cycle of disease and rebirth of all living creatures. The universe appeared to him as a mirror reflecting the misery of the repeated cycles of birth and death. He saw the interplay between good karma and merits, bad karma, and its miserable retributions. During the third watch (the last night), he acquired the third cognition: he perceived the four noble truths. This is suffering, this is the source of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering and this is the path that leads to emancipation along with the sixth form of knowledge, that is, extinction of desire. In the fourth cognition, he realised the principle of ''dependent co-arising'' that framed his theory of existence. Having realised these truths, he attained the level of Buddhahood.


According to M K Gandhi, all faiths constituted a revelation of truth but as they are created by imperfect men they are alloyed by untruth, and therefore, liable to imperfection and error. But absorbing the tested truths of all faiths it is possible to assimilate the universal spirit of all religions. It was his search for satya that inspired him to introduce sarvadharma, the multi-faith prayers. These were chanted and sung in his ashrams.

Gandhi's deep commitment to the value of ahimsa came to him as a natural extension to his search for truth. After repeated experiments, Gandhi came to the conclusion that ahimsa is an infallible force and that ahimsa and satya are part of our inherent nature: ''Man as an animal is violent, and as spirit, is non-violent...violence is the law of the brute. The dignity of man required obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit." In Gandhi's terms, ahimsa is a constituent of satya. It is not absence of violence, but as compassion, ahimsa is an active force of love.

While Mahavira the ascetic followed the path of austerity and Buddha advocated a middle path, Gandhi revisited the concepts of ahimsa and satya and used them successfully in the political sphere as well.

The writer teaches religious studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.