The Light of Nonviolence ― In the Jain Tradition

The Light of Nonviolence is the inspiration of a former leader of the International Jain community, Acharya Shushil Kumarji (Guruji). The book contains forty stories from the experience, moral insight and mystical vision of Guruji. The stories dramatize the real life experiences of Guruji’s travels in India, his meetings with other famous leaders, and his explorations of higher consciousness through Kundalini yoga.Most of the stories deal with the ethics of nonviolence (ahimsa) through fables, parables, and Guruji’s personal experiences. A unique understanding can be gained through these unusual narratives about the possibilities of nonviolent living; and the reader is invited to explore these possibilities. Guruji’s stories resulted from transcriptions and dictations that the author, Courtney Schlosser, collected and edited. Schlosser met Guruji in 1975 and knew him as a teacher, friend, and leader in the Jain community. Although Guruji died in 1994, his charismatic and inspired teachings continue in the lives of the many who knew him. The stories convey the values of nonviolence in moral, psychological, and metaphysical ways. Among the themes of these stories are: astral beings, yogic experiments, extrasensory experiences, healing energy, secret knowledge, animal beings, death and beyond, higher consciousness and real world events. The author has tried to capture the voice and thought of Guruji’s stories, many of which were dictated to him. A brief discussion of Jain philosophy is included in the Appendix. The author would like to thank the Jain community for supporting work on this publication. Om Shanti