Acharya Prashant clarifies the apparent contradiction between the teachings of Shri Krishna and Mahavira regarding violence and non-violence. He explains that Shri Krishna's instruction to fight in the Gita is not about a person killing another, but about understanding the one who neither kills nor can be killed. The speaker emphasizes that as long as one identifies with the body, one is subject to death and will inevitably engage in violence. Shri Krishna’s message is fundamentally about non-doership and surrender, where one allows the divine will to act without personal resistance. Similarly, Mahavira’s principle of non-violence is not merely about sparing a small insect, but about the dissolution of the ego. Acharya Prashant explains that violence begins the moment one perceives another as separate from oneself. By identifying as the body, an individual enters into competition and conflict with the rest of existence for survival and pleasure. Mahavira’s insistence on not harming even an ant is a method to diminish the ego, making it smaller than an insect, thereby weakening the body-consciousness and strengthening the soul-consciousness. The speaker argues that both Shri Krishna and Mahavira are conveying the same core message: the elimination of the 'I' or the personal ego. Whether it is Shri Krishna asking Arjuna to surrender his sense of self to the Divine or Mahavira asking one to value the life of an ant over one's own selfish desires, the goal is the same. Both teachings aim to move the individual away from a self-centered, body-oriented existence toward a state of spiritual surrender and universal oneness.
