The Hindu Ethic of Non-Violence

The Hindu Ethic of Non-Violence

Mankind’s survival is at risk. Our problems proliferate; our global predicament deepens daily. Humanity is in dire need of spiritual direction and new-found wisdom if it is to endure. Hinduism, for millennia, has been teaching non-injury, called ahimsa, as a spiritual principle and practical ethic. They proclaim: “Ahimsa is the highest cosmic law. It is the highest purification and the highest truth.”

‘Ahimsa’ is simply ‘non-violence,’ whether physical, mental or emotional. It is abstaining from causing pain to all beings. Many are the sources of Hindu thought which inspire men and women to live the ideals of compassion and non-violence. The Hindu Rishis, who revealed the principles of Dharma, or divine law in the Hindu scriptures knew fully well the potential for human suffering and the path which could avert it. To the Hindu, one spiritual power flows in and through all beings, animate and inanimate, conferring existence by its presence.

“There is nothing else besides Me. Like beads held together by one thread, all this (creation) is threaded on Me.” (Bhagavad Geeta 7:7)

Life is a coherent process leading all souls, without exception, to enlightenment, and no violence can be carried to the higher reaches of that ascent. God’s revelation discloses a cosmos in which all beings exist in interlaced dependence. The whole is contained in the part, and the part in the whole.

“He who sees Me everywhere, (present in all beings), and sees all beings existing in Me, he is never lost to Me, nor am I ever lost to him.” (Bhagavad Geeta 6:30).

Based on this cognition, Hinduism teaches a philosophy of non-difference of self and the other, asserting that in the final analysis we are not separate from the world and its manifest forms, or from the Divine which shines forth in all beings. From this understanding of oneness arose the philosophical basis for the practice of non-injury.

To the Hindu, the ground is sacred. The rivers are sacred. The sky is sacred. The sun is sacred. His wife is a Goddess. Her husband is a God. Their children are devas. Their home is a shrine. Life is a pilgrimage. The Vedic Rishis who revealed the sacred laws, proclaimed ahimsa as the way to achieve harmony with our environment, peace among peoples and compassion within ourselves. The Vedas say: “Peace be to the earth and airy spaces! To the heaven, waters, plants and trees be peace. May all the gods grant unto me peace! By this invocation of peace, may peace be diffused.”

Hindus believe in the existence of God everywhere, as an all-pervasive, self-effulgent energy and consciousness. This basic belief creates the attitude of sublime tolerance and acceptance towards others. Even ‘tolerance’ is insufficient to describe the compassion and reverence the Hindu holds for the intrinsic sacredness within all beings. Therefore, the actions of all Hindus are rendered benign. One would not want to hurt something that one reveres.

Two beliefs form the philosophical basic of ahimsa. The first is the law of karma, by which the harm caused to others unfailingly returns to oneself. The second is that the Divine shines forth in all beings. The Hindu is thoroughly convinced that violence committed will return to him by a cosmic process that is unerring. He knows that by karmic law what we have done to others will be done to us, if not in this life, then in another.

(Pandit Ramdial Balbadar is a prominent Aachaarya (Teacher) of Hinduism in Guyana. He is the compiler and author of many titles and has over 30 years experience in Pandits’ Training across Guyana. He is currently the President of the Sanatan Vaidic Dharma Pandits’ Sabha, Region 3).