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Chapter VIII - Limitations to the
Practice of Ahimsa
Absolute Ahimsa is impossible. It is not possible to the most
conscientious Sannyasin or monk. To practice that, you must
avoid killing countless creatures while walking, sitting,
eating, breathing, sleeping and drinking. You cannot find a
single non-injurer in the world. You have to destroy life in
order to live. It is physically impossible for you to obey the
law of non-destruction of life, because the phagocytes of your
blood also are destroying millions of dangerous intrusive
spirilla, bacteria and germs.
According to one school of thought, if by the murder of a
dacoit many lives are saved, it is not considered as Himsa.
Ahimsa and Himsa are relative terms. Some say that one can
defend oneself with instruments and use a little violence also
when one is in danger; this is not considered to be Himsa.
Westerners generally destroy their dear horses and dogs when
they are in acute agony and when there is no way of relieving
their sufferings. They wish that the soul should be
immediately freed from the physical body. Motive is the chief
factor that underlies everything.
A renunciate or monk should not defend himself and use
violence even when his life is in jeopardy. To an ordinary
man, Ahimsa should be the aim, but he will not fall from this
principle if, out of sheer necessity and with no selfish aim,
he takes recourse to Himsa occasionally. One should not give
leniency to the mind in this respect. If you are lenient, the
mind will always take the best advantage of you and goad you
to do acts of violence. Give a rogue an inch, he will take an
ell: the mind at once adapts this policy, if you give a long
rope for its movement.
Ahimsa is never a policy. It is a sublime virtue. It is the
fundamental quality of seekers after Truth. No
Self-realization is possible without Ahimsa. It is through the
practice of Ahimsa alone that you can cognize and reach the
Supreme Self or Brahman. Those with whom it is a policy may
fail many a time. They will be tempted to do violent acts
also. On the contrary, those who strictly adhere to the vow of
Ahimsa as a sacred creed or fundamentals cannon of Yoga, can
never be duped into violence.
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