Ahimsa
by Swami Kriyananda
From the Ananda Course in Self-Realization
Ahimsa is a term that was popularized in our times by Mahatma
Gandhi. By non-violent resistance he led India to political
emancipation from Britain. But alas, he was not able to
teach the Indian people the deeper implications of this
teaching. It is seen by most people even today as the last
hope of the underdog. Yet ahimsa, rightly understood, is
the Ultimate Weapon of a strong man; it turns one's enemy
into a friend, thereby banishing the possibility of further
conflict.
In the practice of yoga, it is important to understand
that the life flowing in our veins is the same life which
flows in the veins of all creatures. All of us are expressions
of God, in the same way (to use a favorite illustration
of my guru's) that the individual jets on a gas burner,
though appearing separate from one another, are only manifestations
of the unifying gas underneath. If I hurt you, I am in a
real sense hurting myself. The saying of Jesus, "Love
thy neighbor as thyself," means, in a deeper sense,
"Love thy neighbor; he is thy Self.
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