ahimsa (Sanskrit), traditionally and literally, nonviolence to living creatures; for modern Indian thinkers, a positive sense of kindness to all creatures. To the Jains, ahimsa was a vow to injure no living being (jiva) in thought, word, or deed. Many Buddhists practice ahimsa as a precept that denies the existence of the ego, since injuring another is an assertion of egoism. With the modern period, particularly Gandhi, ahimsa was equated with self-sacrificial love for all beings. For Gandhi it was the first vow of the satyagrahi, the one who ‘held onto Truth,’ the nonviolent resister. See also GANDHI, JAINIS. R.N.Mi.