When we look closely at the epics of different religions, we find some common principles expressed in diverse ways. One such principle is ‘Do No Harm.’ Manusmriti, one of Hinduism’s most important legal texts, says, “Wound not others, do no one injury by thought or deed, utter no word to pain thy fellow creatures.”
The Hadith book, Sahih-al-Tirmidhi, is ranked fifth among Sunni Islam’s ‘Authentic Six’ books. It says, “The Prophet Muhammad said there is no excuse for committing unjust acts: ‘Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well, you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong, you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil.”’
Animistic religions that believe all things, living or non-living, have a spiritual essence, lay great stress on non-harm. For example, the Yoruba religion, practised in modern-day South-West Nigeria, has a couple of sayings: ‘One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts’ and ‘whenever a person breaks a stick in the forest, let him consider what it would feel like if it were himself who was thus broken.’
Buddhism has non-violence as a key virtue, so it is no surprise that the Samyutta Nikaya, or Connected Discourses, should contain the following words in verse 353: ‘The Ariyan (enlightened) disciple thus reflects, here am I, fond of my life, not wanting to die, fond of pleasure and averse from pain. Suppose someone should rob me of my life… it would not be a thing pleasing and delightful to me.
If I, in my turn, should rob of his life, one fond of his life, not wanting to die, one fond of pleasure and averse to pain, it would not be a thing pleasing or delightful to him. For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must also be to him; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?’
The thought is not limited to religions. Even corporations have mottos about it. For example, Google adopted a motto when it was starting out as a search engine in the Nineties. It was, ‘Don’t be evil.’ This was radically different from other corporate mottos at the time and gave a new perspective on using technology to make the world a better place. As Google grew into a tech giant, the motto ended up influencing corporate culture in Silicon Valley, and the entire world.