(from Four Chapters on Freedom, p 192-193)
Ahimsa means love, harmlessness, non-killing, non-violence. It means absence of enmity, hostility, and harm. For the spiritual aspirant it should mean absence of any harmful intention whatsoever. Pratishtha means being firmly established. When one is established in ahimsa, there develops a kind of magnetism around one that influences anybody who approaches. One becomes free of a very dangerous, evil complex — that of violence and hostility.
In Indian history there have been many great people who could convert even the most cruel and devilish hearts. Mahatma Gandhi, who was a devotee of ahimsa, did not harbour any ill will but he too had enemies and he was finally shot down. This shows how difficult it is to practise ahimsa. Lord Buddha had developed the practice of ahimsa so much that he converted any cruel person into a kind-hearted one. Once he faced a cruel dacoit (robber) who had come to kill him and by his mere look, the dacoit was converted. This is the power of ahimsa. In the ashram of Patanjali, the cow, goat and tiger could live eat and drink together because of the ahimsa practiced by the great sage.
It is very easy to say that we should be non-violent, that we should love each other, but the concept of love is too great for us to understand. For us love means security or defense against the fear of death, and nothing more. It is a psychological necessity, but love is actually something much greater. Christ was crucified. Mohammed was stoned by his opponents, the great Sufi saint Mansoor was tortured by the Muslims and his skin was peeled off. All these men had enemies but in India there have been many who had no enemies because they practiced ahimsa perfectly.
The most important thing is not to oppose even violent people. That is also ahimsa and if the whole thing is discussed more deeply, then it means that you practice elimination of the complex of enmity, disapproval. In India, such a person is called ajata shatru, born without an enemy.
Thus it seems that even the great saints and prophets were not firmly established in ahimsa. For example, Buddha, Lord Krishna and Shankara used to criticize and oppose other schools of philosophy, but the yogic logic says that ahimsa must be practiced completely. There should be a dignified way of facing the irregularities of society. That is what satyagraha means.
So, this sutra means that when the aspirant is firmly established in ahimsa, when even the last traces of hostility are finished, the soul unfolds itself from within a magnetic form and that magnetic form is called vairatyagah, which is abandonment of hostility. Thus even the killing of animals should be given up. The Jain cult is famous for ahimsa in India.