JAIN DATABASE at sunsite.unc.edu Jain Study Center of North Carolina Federation of JAINA Information/comments to: varia@med.unc.edu ============================================================================ ************************************* nonviol1 (2/16/93) *** By: Amit Kamani, Jain Center of Central Florida ************************************************************ THE EFFECTS OF NON-VIOLENCE ON HEALTH, WEALTH, AND PLANET EARTH Non-violence is the act of not using violence. Mahatma Gandhi, the former leader of India used this method to gain independence from the British. Mahatma Gandhi refused to use any acts of violence but, used the method of non-cooperation to frustrate the British into freeing India. I will discuss the effects of non-violence on health, wealth, and planet earth in this essay. Non-violence affects health in such a way where lives can be saved. During wars many lives are lost-not only soldiers of the countries that are involved but, innocent bystanders as well. War destroys countries and is not the way to deal with the political problems of the world. Non-violence could bring countries together by discussing the problems instead of fighting to resolve the problem between two countries. Too many people are losing their lives over war and non-violence can stop it. Another effect of non-violence on health could well be the stress on a person during a violent act. For example relatives and close friends of soldiers from different countries feeling the effects of their loved ones not making it back alive. Non-violence could also stop racial tension between different races. In gang fights innocent children are being killed and other young kids are throwing their lives away. If only these groups can make a non-violent effort to stop the tension between them, the killing and hurt would go away. The gang members of today are the future of tomorrow. We have to make sure that the children of today can live to tell their children about the challenges they faced as a child. The effects of non-violence on wealth are that money can be saved to help other causes. Too much money is going towards building tanks, bombs, and other weapons for altercations with other countries. There are situations in this country and around the world that can be helped with money. For example here in Florida schools need money so children can have better tools for learning. In other countries money is needed for starving people. If this world could change to a non-violent world, fighting would stop and money saved from building arms can be used to solve problems in the world. I think that the leaders of all the countries should talk about this problem and start thinking where money is needed the most here on planet earth. I now will discuss the effects of non-violence on planet earth. Just imagine that there was no tension between the countries of the world. This would be hard to believe because every day there is some sort of tension between different nations and people. Non-violence could relieve the world of this tension. The difference that non-violence would make on the world would be that countries would become closer and instead of having wars they could have peace talks. There is also too much violence in the United States today. Acts on non-violence could bring that to an end. It is surprising how people use violence to get things that they want. The problem of drugs and violence in the United States is terrible. People are killing others for drugs. Acts of non-violence could end this threat that is killing so many people. In fact Dr. Martin Luther King followed the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and used non-violent acts to win freedom, liberty, and justice for the blacks in America. Planet earth would be a safer and less violent world if people and countries around the world followed non-violent methods to solve their problems. I think the message that Mahatma Gandhi was trying to get around to the rest of the world was that violence is not the way to get what you want. Amit Kamani Jain Society of Central Florida 1689 Grange Circle Longwood, FL 32750 (407) 260-6459