On Non-Violence And Why My Hair Smells Like Detergent

The principle of non-violence evokes a feeling of awe and respect - something that is evidently true but so difficult to practise that only the likes of Buddha and Gandhi can be truly non-violent.

The non-vegetarian and the mice-sacrificing scientists are left with a vague feeling of somehow being helpless in reconciling their instinctive belief that they are good people, and their inability to debunk the principle of non-violence.

My wife, Sonal, is a firm believer in the principle of non-violence. She was born into Jainism, a religion very much like Buddhism that is founded on the principle of non-violence. She also connects to many teachings of Buddhism. She is also a scientist and is working very hard on finding a cure for Severe Combined Immune Disorder. She found the gene that was mutated in the genetically inherited form of this disorder and created knock out mice. She eventually sacrifices them at a time when they may yield maximum information of the disorder.

This apparent incogruity in actions can be explained by invoking two more principles -
1. A human life is worth any number of other life forms.
2. Inaction to save a human life is also violence when timely action might save the human life.

Unlike the principle of non-violence, which sounds simple, noble and axiomatic, these two principles will find many nay-sayers. Animal rights people will firmly disagree with the first. The second one is essentially incomplete - Hundreds of Thousands of Jewish lives would have been saved if Hitler's mother had performed abortion or even better, never conceived the baby. Yet, such actions only seem arbitrary in the absense of demonstrable connection between inaction and loss of human life.

In any case, Sonal recently had a chance to refelct a little more on practice of the principle of non-violence in our daily life, when we took a 2 week vacation to India. Now, she wanted to be kinder to the bacteria that grow in your dirty clothes while waiting for the Laundry Day. So, she started washing clothes immediately, instead of waiting for 2-3 weeks, in our bath-tub where we take bath. Since we already had bought a year's worth of washing detergent from Costco, and incidentally, we had just ran out of Biolage conditioner, which is why there was an empty conditioner container in the bathroom, she transferred a small aliquot of the detergent into the conditioner container.

In order to explain what happened next, it is necessary for me to go into my bathing habits. My bathing consists of 6 steps when I have to shampoo - 1. A long shower to wake up and get in a mood to go to the next step 2. Applying the shampoo 3. A long shower to wash off the shampoo and get in a mood to go to the next step 4. Apply conditioner to my hair 5. Applying soap/Body wash all over my body 6. A long shower to wash off the conditioner and soap and you guessed it .... to get in a mood to get out of shower.

By now, you would have begun to understand that I am on an autopilot, and not really thinking about what I am doing in the bathtub but in a totally different world, transported to by my bathroom singing. After the long and hot shower for washing my hair off, I felt my way into the familiar Biolage conditioner container (which is a very wide but short cylinder) .... took a dollop of the contents and applied to my hair. The only surprise was that it was a little too liquidy (conditioners are very very thick). I made a mental note to check next time I would take the dollop of conditioner (Because I use a lot of everything, including conditioner). So, the next time I bent down, I did open my eyes and saw something BLUE. The conditioner that I am used to is White in color. That is when I realized that I had applied Sonal's detergent into my hair. I just washed the Blue stuff away and since I was in a hurry, I did not further take any elaborate measures to get the smell of the detergent out.

But my head smelt like detergent for the whole day.

In any case, this incident did rise the question of which is better - To kill the bacteria on Day 0 (when there are just a few) or to kill bacteria on Day 20 (when they have multiplied a few million times)? In either case, violence is necessary. In order to justify the course of action taken, it becomes necessary to invoke yet another principle:
It is better to commit less violence than more violence

Let us now ask what course of action must be taken by any student of non-violence:

1. Firstly, he must consider all possible consequences of all possible actions (and inaction).
2. Then, he must calculate Violence-Index for all actions ... he must calculate in two currencies - the human violence and the non-human violence.
3. Then, he must find the course of action that first minimizes human violence and then minimizes non-human violence.
4. He must then execute this optimal course of action.

I can sympathize with the students of non-violence - so much thinking is involved in the simplest of actions! As my friend Yousang puts it, Buddhism is a religion of the Elite only.

................................................................................................

So many difficulties and confusions arise when one accepts the principle of non-violence as the starting or the fundamental principle. I myself do not subscribe to the principle being fundamental. My views are:
1. Animals have no rights
2. Amongst humans, only the humans that are part of the society have rights (only those rights that the society grants them) and obligations (the basic rules of the society that must be followed at all times).
3. If the society is based on people behaving peacefully and honorably towards each other, then it follows that you will not initiate violence. In such a society self defense is still sanctioned. Since the present society in which we find ourselves is of such nature, it follows that by being a part of it, we have tacitly agreed to society's principles.

In summary, on its own, the principle of non-violence just boils down to honoring your agreement.