Ahimsa: To Do No Harm
Ahimsa:
To Do No Harm
Exploring
the Cardinal Virtue of Noninjury in Thought, Word & Deed
B
y S a t g u r u S i va y a S u b r a m u n i y a s wa m i
Hindu wisdom, which inspires humans to live the
ideals of compassion and nonviolence, is
captured in
one word, ahimsa. In Sanskrit, himsa is doing harm
or causing injury. The “a” placed before the
word negates
it. Very simply, ahimsa is abstaining from
causing harm or
injury. It is gentleness and noninjury,
whether physical, mental or
emotional. It is good to know that nonviolence speaks only to the
most extreme forms of forceful wrongdoing,
while ahimsa goes
much deeper to prohibit even the subtle abuse
and the simple hurt.
Devout Hindus oppose killing for several
reasons. Belief in karma
and reincarnation are strong forces at work
in the Hindu mind.
They full well know that any thought, feeling
or action sent out
from themself to another will return to them
through yet another
in equal or amplified intensity. What we have
done to others will
be done to us, if not in this life then in
another. The Hindu is thoroughly
convinced that violence which he commits will
return to
him by a cosmic process that is unerring. Two
thousand years ago
South India’s weaver saint Tiruvalluvar said it so
simply, “All suffering
recoils on the wrongdoer himself. Thus, those
desiring not to
suffer refrain from causing others pain”
(Tirukural 320). A similar
view can be found in the Jain Acharanga Sutra: “To do harm to
others is to do harm to oneself. You are he
whom you intend to kill.
You are he whom you intend to dominate. We
corrupt ourselves as
soon as we intend to corrupt others. We kill
ourselves as soon as we
intend to kill others.”
Many today are wondering how we might move
from violence to
nonviolence, how mankind might transform itself
from approval of
killing to opposition to it. The Hindu knows
that at this time on this
planet those of the lower nature, unevolved
people, are society’s antagonists.
Being unevolved, they are of the lower
nature: instinctive,
self-assertive, confused, possessive and
protective of their immediate
environment. Others are their enemies. They
are jealous, angry,
fearful. Many take sport in killing for the
sake of killing, thieving for
the sake of theft, even if they do not need
or use the spoils. This is
the lower nature, and it is equally
distributed among the peoples of
the world, in every nation, society and
neighborhood. Those of the
higher nature—ten, fifteen or twenty percent
of the population—live
in protective environments. Their occupation
is research, memory,
education, which is reason; moving the
world’s goods here and there,
which is will. Those of yet an even higher
nature delve into the mysteries
of the universe, and others work for
universal peace and love
on Earth, as groups and individuals. The
Hindu knows that those of
the lower nature will slowly, eventually,
over an experiential period
of time, come into the higher nature, and
that those of the higher
nature, who have worked so hard to get there,
will avoid the lower
nature and not allow themselves to be caught
up in it again. Hindus
believe in the progress of humanity, from an
old age into a new age,
from darkness into a consciousness of divine
light.
Nonviolence has long been central to the
religious traditions of India—
especially Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Religion in India
has consistently upheld the sanctity of life,
whether human, animal
or, in the case of the Jains, elemental.
There developed early in India
an unparalleled concern for harmony among
different life forms, and
this led to a common ethos based on
noninjuriousness and a minimal
consumption of natural resources, in other
words, to compassion
and simplicity. If Homo sapiens is to survive
his present predicament,
he will have to rediscover these two primary
ethical virtues.
In order to understand the pervasive practice
of nonviolence in
Hinduism, one must investigate the meaning of
life. Why is life sacred?
For India’s ancient thinkers, life is seen as
the very stuff of the
Divine, an emanation of the Source and part
of a cosmic continuum.
The nature of this continuum varies in Hindu
thought. Some hold
that the individual evolves up through life
forms, taking more and
more advanced incarnations which culminate in
human life. Others
believe that according to one’s karma and
samskaras, the process
can even be reversed, that is, one can
achieve a “lower” birth. Even
those Indians who do not believe in
reincarnation of an individual
still hold that all that exists abides in the
Divine. They further hold
that each life form—even water and
trees—possesses consciousness
and energy. Whether the belief is that the
life force of animals can
evolve into human status, or that the
opposite can also take place, or
simply that all things enjoy their own
consciousness, the result is
the same—a reverence for life.
Not all of Earth’s one billion Hindus are
living in a perfect state
of ahimsa all of the time. Sometimes
conditions at hand may force a
situation, a regrettable exception, where
violence or killing seems to
be necessary. Hindus, like other human
beings, unfortunately do kill
people. In self-defense or in order to
protect his family or his village,
the Hindu may have to hurt an intruder. Even
then he would harbor
no hatred in his heart. Hindus should never
instigate an intrusion or
instigate a death; nor seek revenge, nor plot
retaliation for injuries
received. They have their courts of justice,
punishment for crimes
and agencies for defending against the
aggressor or the intruder.
Before any personal use of force, so to
speak, all other avenues of
persuasion and intelligence would be looked
into, as Hindus believe
that intelligence is their best weapon. In
following dharma, the only
rigid rule is wisdom. My satguru, Siva
Yogaswami, said, “It is a sin
to kill the tiger in the jungle. But if he
comes into the village, it may
become your duty.” A devout Hindu would give
warnings to scare
the tiger or would try to capture the tiger
without injury. Probably
it would be the most unreligious person in
the village who would
come forward to kill the tiger.
Many groups on the planet today advocate
killing and violence
and war for a righteous cause. They do not
agree with the idea that
violence, himsa, is necessarily of the lower
nature. But a righteous
cause is only a matter of opinion, and going
to war affects the lives of
a great many innocent people. It’s a big
karmic responsibility. Combat
through war, righteous or not, is lower
consciousness. Religious
values are left aside, to be picked up and
continued when the war is
over, or in the next life or the one after
that. It is said that in ancient
India meat would be fed to the soldiers
during military campaigns,
especially before combat, to bring them into
lower consciousness
so
that they would forget their religious values. Most higher consciousness
people will not fight even if their lives
depend on it. They are
conscientious objectors, and there have been
many in every country
who have been imprisoned or killed because
they would not take
up arms against their brother and sister
humans. This is the strictest
expression of Hinduism’s law of ahimsa.
One of the most famous of Hindu writings, the
Bhagavad Gita, is
often taken as divine sanction for violence.
It basically says that for
the kshatriya, or soldier, war is dharma.
Lord Krishna orders Arjuna
to fight and do his kshatriya dharma in spite
of his doubts and fears
that what he is about to do is wrong, despite
his dread of killing his
own kinsmen. Hindus for a long time have
taken this text as justification
for war and conflicts of all kinds, including
street riots and
anarchy. But all that aside, no matter how it
is interpreted, let us not
be mistaken that the Bhagavad Gita gives permission for violence.
The Mahabharata (of which the Gita is a part) itself says, “Ahimsa is
the highest dharma. It is the highest
purification. It
is also the highest truth from which all
dharma proceeds”
(18.1125.25). An eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth is definitely not a part of true
Hindu doctrine.
In every country there is the army, the navy,
air
force, police, the protectors of the
country—the
collective force of citizens that keep a
country a
country. This is dharma. In protection of
family
and nation, in armies and police forces which
give
security, it is indeed dharmic for kshatriyas
to do
their lawful duty, to use necessary force,
even lethal
force. But for this collective force of
protectors, of
peacemakers, of peacekeepers—which includes
the
law courts and the central administrative
authorities
who oversee the courts, the armies, the
navies,
the air force—would the priests be able to
function?
Would the businessmen be able to acquire and
sell
their goods? Would the farmers be able to
plant
their crops and harvest them? Could the
children
play fearlessly in the streets and
countryside? No.
The answer is obvious.
Those who take law into their own hands in
the
name of dharma, citing their case upon the Mahabharata,
are none but the lawbreakers, anarchists,
the arsonists, the terrorists. The Mahabharata
gives no permission for anarchy. The Mahabharata gives
no permission for terrorism. The Mahabharata gives
no permission for looting and diluting the
morals of
society through prostitution, running drugs
and the
selling and buying of illegal arms. The
Pandavas, the
heroes of this ancient epic, were not rabble
rousers.
They were not inciting riots. Nor were they
participating
in extortion to run their war. Nor were they
participating in the sale of drugs to finance
their
war. Nor were they participating in
prostitution to
win their war. Nor were they participating in
enlisting
women to help them fight their war. Nor were
they having children learn to snare their
victims.
Yes, dharma does extend to protecting one’s
country.
But does it extend to taking a country from
another, or to stealing lands? That is lawlessness,
blatant lawlessness. In the modern age, to
create a
nation or even a business enterprise upon the
death
of another, upon lands confiscated, stolen,
illegally
acquired, usurped from another’s realm, is
definitely
not Hindu dharma, and this is not Mahabharata.
In Gandhian philosophy ahimsa means
nonviolent
action which leads to passive resistance in
order
to put a point across. Basically, he taught,
don’t hit
your opponent over the head. If he tells you
to do
something, stall and don’t obey and don’t do
it and
frustrate him into submission. And yet he was
not
a pacifist prepared to accept any harm
without resistance.
When a gang of tribals came in and raped
the women in a village, Gandhi said there
should
not have been a man left alive in the village.
They
should have stood up for the village and
protected it with their lives.
So, to me, if an intruder breaks into your
house to rape the women
or steal things, you have the right, even the
duty, to defend your
own, but you don’t have the right to torture
him. Ahimsa needs to
be properly understood, in moderation. To
explain nonviolence, you
have
to explain what violence is, as opposed to protecting yourself.
vicious intruder? I don’t think it is. If
nonviolence is to be something
that the world is going to respect, we have
to define it clearly and
make it meaningful.
Achieving a nonviolent world would simply
mean that all individuals
have to somehow or other reconcile their
differences enough
that the stress those differences produce can
no longer take over
their mind, body and emotions, causing them
to perform injurious
acts. Again, this would begin in the home.
Peaceful homes breed
gentle people. Gentle people follow ahimsa.
What’s the best way to teach peace to the
world? The best way
is to first teach families to be peaceful
within their own home, to
settle all arguments and contention before
they sleep at night, even
if they stay up for three days, so the
children can see that peace can
be attained and then maintained through the
use of intelligence.
Humans do not have horns or claws; nor do
they have sharp teeth.
Their weapon is their intelligence. Children
must be taught through
the example of parents and by learning the
undeniable facts of life,
the basic tenets—that an all-pervasive force
holds this universe together,
that we create with this force every minute,
every hour, every
day, and because time is a cycle, what we
create comes back to us.
Therefore, because we create in a physical
universe while in a physical
body, we must return to a physical body, in a
new life after death,
to face up to our creations, good, bad or
mixed. Once they learn this,
they are winners. It is up to the parents to
create the peacemakers of
the future. It is always up to the parents.
And remember, we teach
children in only one way—by our own example.
Parents must teach children to appreciate
those who are different,
those who believe differently; teach them the
openness that they
need
to live in a pluralistic world where others have their unique
ways, their life and culture; teach them the
value of human diversity
and the narrow-mindedness of a provincial
outlook; give them the
tools to live in a world of differences
without feeling threatened,
without forcing their ways or their will on
others; teach them that it
never helps to hurt another of our brothers
or sisters.
Vegetarianism is a natural and obvious way to
live with a minimum
of hurt to other beings. Hindu scripture
speaks clearly and
forcefully on vegetarianism. The Yajur Veda dictates: “Do not injure
the beings living on the Earth, in the air
and in the water.” The
beautiful Tirukural, a widely-read 2,200-year-old masterpiece of
ethics, speaks of conscience: “When a man
realizes that meat is
the butchered flesh of another creature, he
will abstain from eating
it” (257). The Manu Samhita advises: “Having well considered the
origin of flesh and the cruelty of fettering
and slaying corporeal beings,
let one entirely abstain from eating flesh,”
and “When the diet
is pure, the mind and heart are pure.” In the
yoga-infused verses
of the Tirumantiram warning is given of how meat-eating holds
the mind in gross, adharmic states: “The
ignoble ones who eat flesh,
death’s agents bind them fast and push them
quick into the fiery
jaws of the lower worlds” (199).
Vegetarianism is very important. In my fifty
years of ministry, it
has become quite evident
that vegetarian families have far fewer
problems than those who are not vegetarian.
The abhorrence of
killing of any kind leads quite naturally to
a vegetarian diet. If you
think about it, the meat-eater is
participating indirectly in a violent
act against the animal kingdom. His desire
for meat drives another
man to kill and provide that meat. The act of
the butcher begins
with the desire of the consumer. When his
consciousness lifts and
expands, he will abhor violence and not be
able to even digest the
meat, fish and eggs he was formerly
consuming. India’s greatest
saints have confirmed that one cannot eat
meat and live a peaceful,
harmonious life. Man’s appetite for meat
inflicts devastating harm
on the Earth itself, stripping its precious
forests to make way for
pastures. The opposite of causing injury to
others is compassion
and love for all beings. The Tirukural puts it nicely: “How can he
practice true compassion who eats the flesh
of an animal to fatten
his own flesh” (251)?
If children are raised as vegetarians, every
day they are exposed
to noninjury as a principle of peace and
compassion. Every day as
they are growing up, they are remembering and
being reminded
to not kill. They won’t even kill another
creature to feed themselves.
And if you won’t kill another creature to
feed yourself, then
when
you grow up you will be much less likely to injure people.
Taking
Care of Business, Nonviolently
Ahimsa
is not just a prohibition against physical and emotional assault
By Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
I was once asked for my insights on applying
ahimsa in the business world. Ahimsa in
business is taught
in a reverse way on American television:
Titans, The West
Wing, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Dallas,
Sopranos—popular
shows of our time. Their scriptwriters
promoted himsa, injuriousness,
in business—“Save the Falcon Crest farm at
any cost,
save South Fork, save the corporation.” Now
the national news
media reports attempts to save Microsoft,
save the tobacco industry,
save the hand gun manufacturers. The fight is
on, and
real-life court battles have taken the place
of TV sitcoms which
have long since been off the air. In both the
TV and the real-life
conflicts, whatever you do to your competitor
is OK because it’s
only business. The plots weave in and out,
with one scene of
mental and emotional cruelty after another.
The Hindu business
ethic is very clear. As the weaver
Tiruvalluvar said, “Those
businessmen will prosper whose business
protects as their own
the interests of others” (Tirukural 120). We should compete by
having a better product and better
methodologies of promoting
and selling it, not by destroying our
competitor’s product and
reputation. Character assassination is not part
of ahimsa. It reaps
bad benefits to the accusers. That is
practiced by many today,
even by Hindus who are off track in their
perceptions of ahimsa.
Hindus worldwide must know that American
television is not
the way business should be practiced. As some
people teach you
what you should do and other people teach you
what you should
not do, the popular television programs
mentioned above clearly
teach us what we should not do. The
principles of ahimsa and
other ethical teachings within Hinduism show
us a better way.
Many corporations today are large, in fact
larger than many
small countries. Their management is like the
deceptive, dishonest,
deceitful, arrogant, domineering autocrat,
king, or like
the benevolent religious monarch, all
depending on whether
there are people of lower consciousness or
higher consciousness
in charge. Cities, districts, provinces,
counties, states and
central governments all have many laws for
ethical business
practices, and none of those laws permits
unfair trade, product
assassination or inter-business competitive
fights to the death.
Each business is dharmically bound to serve
the community,
not take from the community like a vulture.
When the stewardships
of large corporations follow the law of the
land and the
principles of ahimsa, they put their energies
into developing
better products and better community service.
When the leadership
has a mind for corporate espionage, its
energies are diverted,
the products suffer and so does customer
relations. The
immediate profits in the short term might be
gratifying, but in
the long run, profits gained from
wrong-doings are generally
spent on wrong-doings.
Ahimsa always has the same consequences. And
we know these
benefits well. Himsa always has the same
consequences, too. It develops
enemies, creates unseemly karmas which will
surely return
and affect the destiny of the future of the
business enterprise. The
perfect timing needed for success is defeated
by inner reactions to
the wrong-doings. A business enterprise which
bases its strategies
on hurtfulness cannot in good judgment hire
employees who are
in higher consciousness, lest they object to
these tactics. Therefore,
they attract employees who are of the same
caliber as themselves,
and they all practice himsa among one
another. Trickery, deceitfulness
and deception are of the lower nature,
products of the
methodology of performing himsa, hurtfulness,
mentally and emotionally.
The profits derived from himsa policies are
short-term and
ill-spent. The profits derived from ahimsa
policies are long-term
and
well
Saints
and Scriptures Speak on Ahimsa
Nonviolence, truthfulness, nonstealing,
purity, sense control—this, in brief, says
Manu, is the dharma of all the four castes.
Dharma Shastras 10
You do not like to suffer yourself. How
can you inflict suffering on others? Every
killing is a suicide. The eternal, blissful
and natural state has been smothered by
this life of ignorance. In this way the
present
life is due to the killing of the eternal,
pristine Being. Is it not a case of suicide?
Ramana Maharishi
One should never do that to another
which one regards as injurious to one’s
own self. This, in brief, is the rule of
dharma. Yielding to desire and
acting differently, one becomes
guilty of adharma.
Mahabharata 18:113.8
To be free from violence is the
duty of every man. No thought
of revenge, hatred or ill will
should arise in our minds.
Injuring others gives rise to
hatred.
Swami Sivananda
If a man inflicts sorrow on another
in the morning, sorrow
will come to him unbidden in
the afternoon.
Tirukural 319
Refrain from killing knowingly even the
trifling
insects like a louse, a bug or a
mosquito. Use no violence even to gain
possession of a woman, wealth or kingdom.
Never kill any animals even for the
purpose of sacrifice. Non-violence is the
greatest of all religions.
Swami Sahajanand
Ahimsa is the highest dharma. Ahimsa
is the best tapas. Ahimsa is the greatest
gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control.
Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahimsa
is the highest power. Ahimsa is the highest
friend. Ahimsa is the highest truth.
Ahimsa is the highest teaching.
Mahabharata 18:116.37-41
By ahimsa Patanjali meant the removal
of the desire to kill. All forms of life have
an equal right to the air of maya. All men
may understand this truth by overcoming
the passion for destruction.
Sri Yukteswar
Ahimsa is not causing pain to any living
being at any time through the actions of
one’s mind, speech or body.
Sandilya Upanishad
Those high-souled persons who desire
beauty, faultlessness
of limbs, long life, understanding,
mental and physical strength
and memory should abstain from acts of
injury.
Mahabharata 18:115.8
When one is established in
non-injury, beings give up
their mutual animosity in his
presence.
Yoga Sutras
The Hindu sage sees the
whole of life. If he does not
fight, it is not because he
rejects all fighting as futile,
but because he has finished
his fights. He has overcome
all dissensions between himself
and the world and is now
at rest.
Dr.
S. Radhakrishnan
Harnessing
Speech
Contemplation and Discipline Insure
Ahimsa
in Your Daily Interactions
by
Swamini Mayatitananda
The human voice as a divine instrument is a powerful,
foundational tool for living a life of
ahimsa. It is the basis
of our individuality and creative expression.
However, the
human voice is our most misunderstood and
misused possession.
We take our voice for granted—using and
abusing it for the
most mundane, trivial and hurtful
communications—forgetting to
honor it as the divine instrument of ahimsa
within us.
The seers emulated the primordial sound in
order
to fashion the first human expression, called
shruti, the cosmic revelation as heard by the
rishis. Shruti is also referred to as the Word, and
the song of Sama Veda informs us that, “Verily, if
there were no Word, there would be no
knowledge
neither of right or wrong, nor of truth and
untruth, nor of the pleasing and unpleasing.
The
Word makes all this known.” This original
Word
informed Vedic ritual speech, mantras, chants
and music, which carry the cosmic rhythms
and memory of the universe’s entire
experience.
The rishis declared the spoken word, shruti, as
their most significant contribution to
humanity.
Most ancient people left their imprint on
history
through the medium of precious
materials—gold,
silver, bronze, onyx and granite. While time
has
eroded these monuments, the Vedic tradition’s
rich legacy of the spoken word, recited daily
by
an unbroken chain of generations, still lives
on.
Most of us are conscious of the foods we eat,
the air we breathe, the postures we emulate
and
other spiritual practices we do to bring good
health, yet we are unaware of the negative
impressions
we imbibe by way of our senses from
unwholesome talk,
chaotic interaction and the barrage of
discordant sounds we take
into our personal lives through television
and other media. A mind
that is bombarded with violent impressions
will become desensitized
and express itself in angry and insensitive
ways. Eric’s story
is a classical illustration of exactly this
challenge.
I met Eric several years ago at a meditation
workshop in New
York. He was seventeen years old and had been
recently expelled
from school for verbally abusing his teacher.
Eric’s mother, Marion,
was a prominent yoga teacher. She confided to
me that Eric had
been a quiet boy and an excellent student
until he fell in with a
“bad crowd” in the neighborhood.
After listening to Marion, I asked to speak
with Eric privately.
As he slouched in the chair beside me, he
refused to make eye
contact. I closed my eyes and waited for him
to speak. After several
tense minutes, he broke the silence. “She is
always screaming
at me, demanding that I do the things that
make her happy. But
what about me? She is so caught up in her
work she doesn’t even
know who I am. She pushes me to do all these
health things. My
friends think I’m a sissy—eating health food,
washing the dishes,
chanting....” For twenty minutes, or so, Eric
blurted out his story
nonstop. All I could hear was the young man’s
anger about being pushed by Marion’s anger
and his frustration about feeling inadequate
and not “fitting in” with his friends. Marion
had good intentions for her son, but like
many
parents who underestimate their children’s
intelligence
she had missed the most important
lesson—listening to her son’s needs and
communicating
with him. The more she forced
Eric to adhere to her values, the farther
away
Eric ran. Suddenly, as he became a teenager,
he found a voice of violence in the popular
culture that had heard him and he began to
retaliate against his mother’s tyranny. To
compensate for the support
he felt he was not getting at home, Eric had
found negative
reinforcement from his street buddies and
seized the opportunity
to express himself. He was true to his voice
of anger. It was Marion
who had not yet found her voice of peace.
Although she had been
practicing yoga for twelve years, she has
still not found the true
meaning behind spiritual practice—the spirit
of nonviolence and
nonhurting that would finally help her to
communicate
its wondrous essence to her son.
I have developed the Vac Tapasya, “Speech
Penance,” to evoke healthy, harmonious
thoughts and bring forward positive, pleasant
words. Spend fifteen minutes at the end of
every day allowing your mind to run free.
Notice
whatever negative, hurtful thoughts that
may come up. Write down those thoughts and
the person or situations they concern,
without
whitewashing or censoring them. Let yourself
be angry, judgmental and unkind. And above
all, be honest. Repeat each negative thought
aloud. For example: “Mary is so demanding. I
can’t bear to work with her.” Then recite the
attitude of one seeking true inner knowledge:
“I know that every negative thought reflects
my
own inner condition.”
Now take responsibility for your feelings
from
which the negative thought sprang: “I am
being
intolerant of Mary. It will not be pleasant
for Mary
if I see her with this attitude.” This will
help you
learn to always carefully consider your words
before
you speak them aloud to another person, and
to avoid an angry, accusatory or aggressive
tone. If you feel pressured
to respond or speak in a way that you think
may be hurtful to another
person, use your notebook to tell this person
your raw, unedited feelings
in the form of a letter that you do not send.
Let the letter sit for a week.
Then, before you read it, make one small
change. Replace the name of
the person to whom it is addressed with your
own name. This may help
you understand that the letter has less to do
with the person with whom
you are angry, and is more about your hurt
feelings, which stem from
your negative thoughts and feelings about
your own life. The Maitri
Upanishad put it this way: “Words cannot
describe the joy of the spirit
whose spirit is cleansed in deep
contemplation—who is one with his/her
own Spirit. Only those who experience this
joy knows what it is.”
Sri Swamini Mayatitananda is founder of the
Wise Earth School and the Mother Om Mission.
Wise Earth, 90 Davis Creek Road, Candler,
North Carolina 28715 USA. Phone: 828-258-9999.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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