Non-Violence
17
A Separate Ledger for Sins
Questioner: If one man cuts grass, one chops down a
tree, one kills a mosquito, one kills an elephant and another kills a
human being, there is violence involved in each act, but are the
consequences different in each case?
Dadashri: Yes, the consequences will be different. The
blade of grass is not so significant.
Questioner: But is there not the presence of Soul in a
blade of grass?
Dadashri: That is true. But the grass suffers in a state of
dormancy.
Questioner: So the degree of the sin one binds is
proportionate and directly related to the amount of suffering
experienced by the entity transgressed upon?
Dadashri: Yes, the amount of sin one binds is based on
the degree of suffering inflicted upon another living being.
Questioner: Many people have beautiful gardens
surrounding their homes.
Dadashri: There is nothing wrong with that. The only reason
for telling people not to keep gardens is because a lot of precious
time is wasted in maintaining them and not because of the violence
it involves.
Questioner: But are we not instrumental in causing this
violence?
Dadashri: There is nothing wrong with being an instrument.
The whole world is in an instrumental form. Everything just
continues to happen in this way. You do not have to concern
yourself with the single-sensory organisms, because you are not
inflicting any pain on them. Some people needlessly become overly
concerned with such forms of violence. Nevertheless, you should