Acharya Prashant explains that non-violence is not about being afraid, but about fearlessness. He states that violence comes from fear, which in turn comes from ignorance. Conversely, non-violence is fearlessness, and fearlessness is self-knowledge. Non-violence, therefore, does not have much to do with the other; it is not about refusing to fight or resist, nor is it about being good to or serving the other. The essence of non-violence is self-knowledge. If you know yourself, you are not afraid, and if you are not afraid, you do not treat the other as an enemy. You do not even treat the other as a friend; you simply do not treat the other as 'the other'. Non-violence lies not in treating the other as a friend, but in treating the other as not-other. With this realization, one must do what is necessary. This includes fighting oneself, such as combating internal lust, greed, or fear. If you can fight yourself, you can also fight the other, because the other is not separate from you. Non-violence dictates that the other is what you are. Therefore, one should fight the other with honesty, looking at them as one would look at oneself, and punishing them with the same yardstick used for oneself. Non-violence does not forbid punishing the other, but it demands that you punish yourself equally in similar situations. The speaker illustrates this with the examples of Mahavir and the Sikh Gurus. Mahavir taught to fight the enemy of religion within, while the Sikh Gurus taught to fight the enemy of religion without. Both are considered non-violent because neither patronizes 'otherness'. The enemy of religion is falseness, which must be fought wherever it is foundâwhether in the battlefield, one's own house, or within one's own body as carnal tendencies. The Sikh Gurus were harsh on those who disrespected religion and applied the same standards to themselves and their own kin, even forsaking their sons if they were disloyal to the sacred word. Ultimately, violence is defined as forgetting the Truth or God, while non-violence is fighting whatever makes you forget the Truth. This means a non-violent person must be a fighter. The object of this fight is falseness. Since one is fighting something that is not real, it cannot be considered true violence. The false must be fought equally wherever it is found. The speaker concludes that non-violence is the understanding that the other is not the other.
