What is Ahimsa? A teenager’s exploration Ishaan Rajabali - https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/what-is-ahimsa-a-teenagers-exploration-7216071/ Today, we find ourselves living in a conflict-ridden world, where differing viewpoints clash in a raging fire stoked by hate and polarisation. The situation is so dire that we seem to have abandoned the search for a middle ground that allows for peaceful discussion... Ahimsa Conversations was born. The idea of journalist and author Rajni Bakshi, this YouTube platform provides viewers with a window into the thoughts of an extensive range of figures who have delved into the varied aspects of ahimsa..
.. Radha Bhatt’s episode provides viewers with a truly inspiring story about how ahimsa motivated her and the women of her village to become front runners of the Chipko movement.( the story of Gora Devi ( ...
..Silicon Valley-based activist Nipun Mehta speaks about the ideals behind his over 5,00,000 volunteer-based network, Service Space. Says Mehta: “I feel, instead of saying ‘Who’s the next Gandhi?’ the more pertinent question is ‘How do we build the field in which a Gandhi can arise?’”. ...
In yet another episode Lia Diskin, an Argentinian philanthropist and recipient of the Padma Shri, describes how the experience of reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the age of 13 gave her an understanding of the effect violence has, especially on the youth. Diskin went on to become a student of history, and examined the violent precedents that have been set by figures of the past. Her explorations of how non-violence helps to resolve conflicts in diverse circumstances led to the founding of the Palas Athena Association, a Sao Paolo based organization that advocates non-violence through community projects... https://www.youtube.com/embed/PkEhNk9oNUA?start=1218&end=2040
Comments on the article:
RK "the most significant aspect of ahimsa is that it is an evolving discipline."
JD: I tend to go with ahimsa (to not mean but) "represent" "empty of violence" I had learnt from a pious but strict jesuit principal, that one has a right to take offence or to criticise only what one loves. So when a mother smacks a child who is playing with fire or even when in the battlefield you are told to do your dharma, that would be the test. Unfortunately after the cold war, we have motivated soldiers and political enemies more by "hatred" than by "love" ..
You will notice that to generate a lynch mob, you need to generate so much hatred, even for yourself, your own condition.. that you are made to feel that the only way to exorcise it, is to take it out and blame someone else foryour condition.
In the early 70s, charu mazumdar, I think, had proposed gory beheading of class enemies, which he claimed was to liberate oneself.. in reality it only made you slave to your violence.. from then on you became a fugitive, not only from the State, but also from yourself, your inner self.!! I have found that every aggressive action makes oneself fugitive from one inner self and you will notice that any conscious act of countering this aggression with something soft, allows you to be-friend your inner self. Now as a part of our Buddhist group, we learn there is no inherent self, and that every thing is created by cause and conditions of existential phenomena. But that is all the self that we encounter .. so we have no option but to love and work with that "empty self" . Now it is left to ourselves, to decide how we want our "empty selves" to be!!!