Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

SR No.: 001190
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 266
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Ethics, & Principle
File Size: 13 MB

Page 224

STAGES OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
regarding the pain inflicted, selfishness and heartlessness.
With regard to vivisection, it is done for the purpose of gaining certain physiological knowledge. But, first, we have no right to obtain knowledge at the expense of other living beings and, second, our lack of knowledge is due to a knowledge obscuring karma and if we remove it we shall have the knowledge without injuring the living beings. In the Jaina idea of morality relationships with all living beings are considered, and not merely relationships with man alone.
Now from the point of view of how much killing a layman can avoid, living beings can be divided into :
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1. Those having the power of locomotion.
2. Stationary, trees, etc.
And the layman cannot take a vow to refrain from killing the stationary ones.
Now for the sake of comparing the protection to life afforded by a layman with that afforded by a monk, we may represent full protection by the number 16. Therefore in this first division, roughly speaking the layman's protection to life would be only half that afforded by the monk.
Now taking the killing of moving living beings, how much can the layman avoid? There is killing them :
1. With determined intention, where he thinks 'yes, I want to kill them and I am killing them.'
2. Killing them in household and personal matters, viz, cooking, digging foundations, etc.
The layman cannot undertake to refrain from the latter kind of killing, and so again the protection to life as compared with the monk is reduced to 4.
Another point is that the beings which are killed with determined intention may either be :
1. Innocent, or
2. Guilty so far as your interests are concerned, and the layman cannot say he will not kill the guilty ones. A lion is guilty if he attacks you, also so is burglar. So again the protection to life is reduced to 2.