MyLifeYoga

Ahimsa or non-violence seems like an abstract concept. Many wonder if it even applies in modern life, given the violence and hate all around us. Here are eight things to know:

1. Core of Yoga– The aim of yoga is to silence all thoughts. The root of thoughts is the ego-identity. This is also the root of intolerance and violence. This is why ahimsa (non-violence) is a core value in Yoga. When we quiet our mind and allow space for tolerance and non-violence, our heart melts and love flows out. This soothes and calms the mind-body and allows us to further quiet our mind. Our yoga deepens.

2. Violence does more damage to perpetrator– The notion that we can get away with violence unscathed is silly. The fact is violence does more damage to the doer than the receiver. This is because our actions have ripples that flow out for a long time afterwards. Most of these ripples flow back into our life. The way the Universe is designed is that whatever we do multiplies and comes back in our life. If we plant love, love in our life multiplies. If we plant hate and intolerance this too comes back and poisons our life.

3. Non-Violence is not just in action – There are many levels for non-violence. The unseen, hidden levels are usually more important. So non-violence has to be present in thought, feeling, and action. It is not enough that our actions are non-violent, while internally we wish harm to the other person. Violence in thought or action is equally bad. Also one cannot remain “clean” and have somebody else do the dirty work. This means both direct and indirect violence is equally damaging.
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Take a piece of glass, paint colors and forms on it, and put the same into a magic lantern, turn on a little light, and the colors and the forms painted on the glass are reproduced on the screen. If that light were not turned on, you would not see the colors of the slide on the screen.

How are colors formed? By breaking up white light with a many-sided prism.

So it is with a man’s character.

It is seen when the Light of Life (God) is shining through it, i.e. in a man’s actions. If the man is sleeping or dead, you do not see his character. Only when the Light of Life is animating the character and causing it to act in a thousand different ways, in response to its contact with
this many-sided world, can you perceive a man’s character. If white light had not been broken up and put into forms and shapes on our magic lantern slide, we should never have known that there was a piece of glass in front of the light, for the light would have shone clearly through.

In a sense that white light was marred, and had some of its clearness taken from it by having to shine through the colors on the glass.

So it is with an ordinary man. His mind is like the screen. On it shines light, dulled and changed because he has allowed the many-sided world to stand in the way of the Light (God) and broken it up. He sees only the effects of the Light (God) instead of the Light (God) Himself, and his mind reflects the effects he sees just as the screen reflects the colors on the glass. Take away the prism and the colors vanish, absorbed back into the white light from whence they came. Take away the colors from the slide and the light shines clearly through. Take away from our
sight the world of effects we see, and let us look only into the cause, and we shall see the Light (God).

Credit: Arthur Osborne “Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge”

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