PREFACE
In an ocean of violence there is always violence, but if one
wants to practice absolute non-violence (ahimsa), it is only
possible through the reading and contemplation of the words
spoken by the Gnani Purush Param Pujya Dadashri. There are
many people who practice overt, gross ahimsa, but it is extremely
difficult to know and understand it at its most subtle levels. It is
not easy to know these levels, so how can one even begin to talk
about attaining them?
If one does not understand what constitutes the entire
spectrum of ahimsa towards living beings, beginning with the visible
to the subtlest, such as life-forms present in the air and water, and
if one does not understand intent-violence (violence through inner
intent which creates new karma) and intent-death (the ultimate of
all violence: violence against the self), then whatever ahimsa one
practices, will be in vain. One will be stuck at the level of mere
words and gross mechanical actions.
Only the one, who is absolutely non-violent himself, can
show others the true nature of violence. Such a being is eternally
established as the Self. These are the Tirthankaras and the
Gnanis.
In this book, you will find information about violence and
non-violence, from the gross to the subtlest levels, as exposed by
the Gnani Purush himself. He is absolutely non-violent in a world
filled with violence. This book has been compiled with the intention
that people of this time-cycle, suffering from violence from every
direction, achieve salvation for this life and lives to come.
Who can escape ‘effect’ violence (visible acts of violence,
intentional or otherwise; violence perceived by all the senses)?
Even the Tirthankars themselves, at the time of their ultimate
liberation, with their last breath, killed innumerable airborne life-
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