Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 34

20 Harmless Souls case of a monk who picks up, or puts down, a stick. He is totally innocent if in taking hold of it or in laying it down he acts with attention and cleans it. Conversely, he deserves five days of austerity (tapas) if he is guilty of negligence on the first or second point, or on both. Nevertheless, it is still necessary that no creature should have been injured (my emphasis]. Months of tapas have to be observed for harm done to a living creature when one spits, for instance, or if one receives alms in a wet bowl; and the death of a living creature involves complete loss of seniority.44
1.4 Himsā and the ascetic
From the above, it is clear that in the earliest Jaina texts yoga refers primarily to physical action, and that when it is harming it is 'sinful' (i.e. evil action - pāvakamma), and thus binding, regardless of intention or consciousness. For this reason the behaviour of the Jaina monk is characterised above all by physical inactivity and restraint: An early text dealing with ascetic behaviour, the Dasaveyāliya Sutta, makes this very clear.
Dasaveyāliya 4.1 reads: 'He who walks, (stands, sits, and lies down, eats and speaks) carelessly, will hurt living beings. He binds evil karman, that is his bitter reward. '45 And Dasaveyāliya.4.8 states: 'He should walk, stand, sit, and lie down carefully; if he eats and speaks carefully, he does not bind evil karman'. 46
Nothing is said about binding 'good' karman; the important thing is not to bind karman at all (i.e. all karman
44 Ibid. p. 105. 45 Trans. by Schubring, Leumann's ed. 1932, p. 87, of: ajayam caramāņo u pāņa-bhūyāi himsai| bandhai pāvayam kammam tam se hoi kaduyam phalam || 46 jayam care jayam citthe jayam āse, jayam sae jayam bhuñjanto bhāsanto pāvam kammam na bandhai ||