All faiths and sastras in one voice hail ahimsa as the sole pride of humanitarian society and hence advice people to uphold it in their individual and social contexts, pointed out Swami Omkarananda in a discourse. It fosters all good virtues in people and inspires them towards righteous living. The essence of ahimsa is absence of hatred which is the cause of all evil.
Ahimsa makes one see all objects in creation including ourselves as God’s possession. The motto is to be compassionate towards one and all. The Lord exemplifies this compassion towards all aspects of His creation and especially when He incarnates time and again to establish dharma, destroy evil and protect the good. For instance, in the long drawn fight Soorapadman wages against Muruga, the asura is deluded by the alternating visions of the Lord as a young boy and of His Viswarupa darshan.
Finally the Lord establishes the value of enduring love when Soorapadman is not killed but is merely transformed into a cock which adorns the Lord’s flag and a peacock that becomes His mount. Spreading the message of love is the antidote for hatred. All calamities are caused by hatred as it spurs disunity leading to inflicting pain and destruction. Hatred colours one judgment and causes wrong notions and can ruin one’s character very easily. One has to be cautious of the tendency to misunderstand ideas and concepts, for, when once ingrained, it becomes very hard to unlearn them. The Gita shows that true Sanyasa embodies ahimsa. When one renounces worldly possessions and opts to live the life of a recluse, it indicates that none need fear such a person. Ahimsa is a penance that does not kill even as it does not encourage one to speak ill of others at any cost.
