Non-violence from Childhood

Non-violence is a great human value. All the other species that are found in the earth totally depend on other living beings. If we look at the food cycle of the species, we can see how they depend on other animals for their living. The whales hunt fish, pests live on the trees sucking the tree’s food, the wildflowers hunt living beings

The early human beings lived beside the rivers and found shelter in caves. They had to depend on the fruits, leaves and nuts. They even hunted birds and animals for food, dress and to cover their needs. At the same time the humans knew how they can live without harming other species by following non -violence. There were sages, saints, rishis and other Brahmins who remained vegetarians and followed the great human value called non-violence.

It is when Mahatma Ghandi elaborated and demonstrated how a country can be liberated from other rulers by fasting and Sathyagraha that the world came to know about non- violence. Mahatma fought for the liberation of India from the British rulers through non-violence and Sathyagraha.

The great Tamil scholar Thiruvalluvar has written a chapter on non- violence. In it we find verses such as follows:

“கொல்லான் புலாலை மறுத்தானைக் கைகூப்பி எல்லா உயிருந் தொழும்.”

Meaning: If one refrains from eating non vegetarian food the whole world will worship him.

We have witnessed how all the saints, avatars and deities have lead man in the right path through religious literature. Today man has explored not only the earth and other planets, he has found the very minute and astonishing technology too. We read in the twentieth Century short stories about how one can see and talk to each other through a gadget. Today it is not very surprising to see someone who is geographically far away in a mobile phone. The present generation is fortunate to live in supremely developed IT and Technology, enjoying and living without much strain. Everything is in their doorstep. In this wonderous world in each family from the baby to the granny everyone is occupied handling Mobile phones, Tab, Laptop or TV. All these inventions were already found by the great Rishis as they followed vegetarian food from their birth, nurtured other species and loved all living beings and observed non-violence and kept the five elements such as water, fire, air, earth and the space in their control.

Only during fasting days and temple festivals people avoid non -vegetarian food. This itself proves that they are aware of the great value non -violence. Today people have no time to think about whether they can lead a life without committing sin. Therefor we can see that every day, every moment humans are ignoring non-violence.

In earlier times the grandparents and parents guided the small ones to follow human values such as telling truth, respecting elders, obeying parents and following non- violence. As human is the highest breed of creation, he can understand the feelings of other beings. Man can show love and care others. He can preserve the beautiful creation of this world without polluting, harming, destroying and corrupting it.

The right time has come now for all to preserve and follow the great human values from the birth of the child, as the world is suffering from nonviolence such as being addicted to narcotics and alcohol, child abuse, sexual harassment, raping ,murder smuggling ,robbery and so on. The parents and teachers have to play a great role in enabling the young children to follow this great value non-violence to nurture the earth and the living beings and to obtain love from mother earth and other planets reciprocatively.

Bavvatharani Ravindran

Nallur

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