Human Excellence in Bhagavad Gita. Ahimsa (Non-violence) (13.7)
Ahimsa means ‘not giving pain to living beings’
One should value ahimsa and avoid hurting others. Hurting others or acting violently takes place in three ways: physical, verbal, and mental.
People are valuable. They make us smile. They help us succeed. Some will even become friends who share our joys, and support us through bad times. And, if they trust us, they will also open their hearts to us. That means we need to treat everyone with love and respect. We need to prevent hurting and causing injury to others. One should be sensitive towards other living beings.
To think ill of others is mental violence. Thus, hurting others through thinking, speaking and doing, are all part of violence. One should keep a check over all these three forms of violence.
We want others to respect our life; we do not want anyone to harm, hurt or harass us. In the same way, we should respect and treat others.
In order to practice verbal non-violence, we should remember that it is not easy to heal others’ hurt feelings but to hurt others is easy. Hence one’s words should be carefully watched and chosen before uttering. Whatever we speak should be good (hita), brief (mita), sweet (madhura) and true (satya).
Speaking ill of others in their absence also amounts to verbal violence. This is so because our criticism of others in their absence creates in the minds of listeners an image of the persons criticized and as they are not present, they cannot defend themselves. One may speak ill of others in a casual way but the listener will form an opinion about them based on one’s words and, if the listener is equally immature, he might further relate it to others. Thus, this will build up a negative atmosphere and make us distrustful of each other. One should avoid this at all cost.
Sarcasm is another very serious form of verbal violence that needs to be checked. To speak sarcastically means to have a hidden idea to hurt the other person through one’s seemingly simple words. To ridicule others or laugh at them when they are in trouble is also a verbal violence.
What is there to laugh about a person who slips and falls? He is already hurt, and instead of giving him a helping hand, if one laughs at him, one does violence to him. Laughing in itself is a good thing, but when one laughs at others’ misfortune it is indeed cruel. The entire Mahabharata war took place because Draupadi laughed at Duryodhana at the wrong time and that pierced his heart like a spear. Then he said, ‘I will take revenge for it.’ What all she had to face as a consequence of her laughter! She was dragged to court by her hair by Dushasana. He tried to disrobe her and ultimately the war happened! The seeds of Mahabharata war lie embedded in Draupadi’s laughter.
Hurting others really begins at the mental level. If one thinks ill of others, one cannot hide it for long; sometime or other it will come out through one’s words or actions. Mental anguish is like a fire. First it is a mere spark, a mere idea in the mind. When this ‘fire’ grows in intensity, it comes out in words and when it assumes greater form and intensity, it gets expressed in physical form.
If a person is violent in this manner, it shows that there is a deeper problem in his mindset. Only a person who is hurt within in some way can think of hurting others. He or she cannot be nice towards others if he or she is mentally bleeding inside. Such people condemn others and want to see them as enemies. They think that the whole world has conspired to put them in bad situation and everybody else is responsible for their problems! When everybody else is held responsible for one’s suffering what comes out is only a feeling of retaliation and anger. They think that others as responsible for their misery and hence it is good to pay them back!
When one has pain in one’s mind, one spits poison. We cannot expect cool breeze from raging fire. The wind coming from fire would be hot only. So we have to first soothe the person within. Then only the mind becomes soothed and calm. We should ask ourselves: Why are we hurt? Why are we wanting to hit others or damage things? There may be some unfulfilled desires which may be causing it, and one should attend to it. It is like cleaning up a bad wound. The wound has to be surgically opened and the toxic matter, the pus, has to be drained out. Only when it is properly cleaned and dressed that it will heal. The mind too should be similarly healed. Then only one gets inner peace.
One way of doing this is to learn to accept what cannot be changed or altered. We often forget that it is our own Karma which comes back to us in many ways.
We can understand only when our mind is relatively quiet, secure and educated through right thinking. But in order to bring the mind to that point, we have to do some initial work. This means we should learn the art of self-examination.
Non-violence or ahimsa means, in simple words, sensitivity to others. Do unto others what you want
others to do unto you. As you wish to be treated by others, do the same to others. If you become the cause for somebody’s tears, somebody will become a cause of your tears in future. What is sin and what is merit? Thus goes the famous adage: Paropakarah Punyaya, Papaya Parapidanam. To do good to others is merit or good and meritorious; to trouble others is sin. Says Maha bharath. One should wipe the tears of the troubled and the orphans. This compassion, or non-violence should come and then only we are truly spiritual. This means we should be watchful and vigilant at every step.
(Based on Vedanta Kesari and other sources Edited and Condensed by Swami Adhishwarananda)
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