When To Kill

The famed Hindu doctrine that thou shalt not kill even a bug--much less a human--was sensationally reinterpreted last week, by the potent ascetic, sage and saint, Mahatma Gandhi.

Quoth the Mahatma:

''Just as a surgeon does not commit himsa (killing), but practices the purest ahimsa (non-killing) when he wields his knife on his patient's body for the latter's benefit, similarly one may find it necessary ... to go a step further and sever life from the body in the interest of the sufferer.

"It may be objected that whereas the surgeon performs his operation to save the life of the patient, in the other case we do just the reverse. But on a deeper analysis it will be found that the ultimate object sought to be served in both cases is the same, viz., to relieve the suffering soul within from pain. In the one case you do it by severing the diseased portion from the body. In the other you do it by severing from the soul the body that has become an instrument of torture to it. . . . Suppose, for instance, that I find my daughter--whose wish at the moment I have no means of ascertaining--is threatened with violation and there is no way by which I can save her. Then it would be the purest form of ahimsa on my part to put an end to her life and surrender myself to the fury of the incensed ruffian."

Puzzled Hindus pondered whether it is now safe to tread upon a ladybug--whose wish at the moment one has no means of ascertaining--would she seem menaced with assault.