AHIMSA. The term ahimsa is formed by adding the negative prefix a to the word himsa which is derived from the Sanskrit root \'han\', i.e. \'to kill\', \'to harm\', or \'to injure\', and means not killing, not harming, not injuring. The commonly used English equivalent \'non-violence\' is inadequate as it seems to give a false impression that ahimsa is just a negative virtue. Ahimsa is not mere abstention from the use of force, not just abstention from killing and injuring; it also implies the positive virtues of compassion and benevolence because not killing and not injuring a living being implicitly amounts to protecting and preserving it and treating it with mercy.
VACHAN GOBIND LOKA KE ( Sayings of the Saintly People) is a didactic work in Punjabi prose by Bhai Addan Shah, a Sevapanthi saint. Completed in 1904 Bk/AD 1847 and written in the hand of one Khivan Singh, the work comprises 147 folios with 9+9 lines on each folio and 252 sakhls or anecdotes, each with a lesson. The work remains unpublished, and the only known copy of the manuscript is preserved under MS. 99 in the Panjab University Library, Chandigarh.
