Dear All,

Thank you all who have reacted with precious references to passages relevant to what is perhaps a kind of "radiance of peace" concept, expressed briefly in Yoga-sūtra 2.35, अहिंसाप्रतिष्ठायां, तत्सन्निधौ वैरत्यागः ।

It seems that only the extensive passages in the Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin to which Andrea Acri referred extends the concept explicitly to human society.

I am grateful for the references to the Mahābhārata, Śākuntalopākhyāna (famously elaborated also by Kālidāsa), and the Telugu commentary on it.

Also the reference to the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Sanskritic Bengali bring us beyond the scope of Sanskrit literature in the strict sense of the word.

The reference to Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarānanda I find important because it concerns the legendary sage Kapila, known as one of the founders of the Sāṁkhya system of philosophy (as I have argued, Sāṁkhya was originally more a movement, partly in protest to Vedic ritualism, and became a philosophical system afterwards).

The scene described in this reference is almost a Sāṁkhya illustration of the concept (later on?) formulated in YS 2.35.

One part of a similar formula is perhaps found in the saṁnyāsa-vidhi attributed to a certain Kapila, अभयं सर्वभूतेभ्यो मत्तस् स्वाहा ।(Baudhāyana-Gṛhya-Śeṣa-Sūtra 4.16.4).

The other part remains here apparently unexpressed, namely: the expectation that this declaration will lead to वैरत्यागः and to wild animals etc. to provide, reciprocatively, abhayam to the ascetic (and, near the ascetic, to each other).

A very similar or rather parallel concept, expressed in different terms, is found, in my view, in the maitrī and maitrī-bhāvanā of Buddhism, as discussed by Lambert Schmithausen in his Maitrī and Magic : Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude Toward the Dangerous in Nature, Vienna, 1997.

As we know that nonviolence was and is an important religious duty in JAINISM it would be interesting to know whether in that context, too, a concept of a "radiance of peace" was known or developed...

With best wishes to all,

On Sun, 25 Dec 2022 at 19:13, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear All,
According to Yoga-sūtra 2.35, अहिंसाप्रतिष्ठायां, तत्सन्निधौ वैरत्यागः ।
which apparently means that when someone is thoroughly established in non-violence, (mutual) enmity disappears in his environment.
Commentaries and references given for aphorism and referred to for instance in James Wood’s translation emphasize that in this situation *even* wild animals, no more attack their prey. An example is Kirāṭārjunīya 2.55 (meter viyoginī): Vyāsa is looked at by Yudhiṣṭhira:
madhurair avaśāni lambhayann api tiryañci śamaṃ nirīkṣitaiḥ /
paritaḥ paṭu bibhrad enasāṃ dahanaṃ dhāma vilokanakṣamam //
“Calming even wild animals by his gentle looks, spreading a blazing radiance around which burns away guilt, (but which yet) can be gazed at (the sage, i.e., Vyāsa son of Parāśara, was seen by the king, Yudhiṣṭhira)” (tr. following Roodbergen 1984, p. 143; cp. also Raghuvaṁśa 13.50, 14.79.)
Are any more convincing stories or anecdotes known in Sanskrit literature, in which the peace-creating influence suggested in YS 2.35 inspires animals or *even* humans to behave in a more peaceful way ?
With best wishes for a Peaceful Christmas New Year to all:
शान्ते ! ऽस्मिन् लोक एधस्व विद्यातः प्रेमतस्तथा ।
तव भक्तजनानां च कल्याणमस्तु सर्वदा ॥

Jan E.M. Houben

Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology

Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite

École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)

Sciences historiques et philologiques

Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EA 2120)

johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu

https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben

https://www.classicalindia.info

LabEx Hastec OS 2021 -- L'Inde Classique augmentée: construction, transmission

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