Jaina Ethics

SR No.: 001334
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 314
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Principle
File Size: 15 MB

Page 124

The Conduct of a Householder
107
for the affliction of others."1 The Daśavaikālikasūtra declares that to one who walks, stands, sits, sleeps, eats and speaks with vigilence, no sin accrues.2 Kundakundācārya also says that a śramaņa who is negligent is said to be violent with regard to all the six kāyas but if he behaves vigilantly, he remains unattached, just like lotus in water. This is how absolute non-violence is made possible.
Coming to the commentaries of Taltvārthasūtra, Sarvārthasiddhi of Pūjyapāda repeats the same thing and says that a negligent soul afflicts the self by self and it is not important whether others are killed or not.4
Akalarkadeva in his Rājavārtika defines pramatta as a ; person who loses all sense of discrimination under the influence of passions.
The objection that if a person cannot be held responsible for happiness and miseries of others, how could he be held responsible for any act of violence, has been answered on the basis of predominance of bhāvahiṁsā. True that a person is not responsible for the miseries of another persone, yet he cannot escape responsibility of defiling his pure nature by entertaining the ideas of attachment and aversion, which is the real sin.
Violence in action (Dravyahiṁsā) :
Non-violence in thought should be translated into action also. To say that if internal mind is undefiled external purity of actions is unnecessary, would be denying the unbreakable relation between thought and action. Non-violence is not merely an abstract idea but also a concrete way of life. What has been said about the importance of bhāvahiṁsā and niscayhiṁsā does not mean negligence in outward behaviour.
1. Jayasena, on Pravacanasāra, 2.57. 2. Daśavaikälika, 4.8. 3. Pravacanasära, 3.18. 4. स्वयमेवात्मनात्मानं हिनस्त्यात्मा प्रमादवान् ।। पूर्व प्राण्यन्तराणान्तु पश्चात्स्याद्वा न वा वधः ।।
Quoted by Pūjyapāda on Tattvārthasūtra, 7.10. 5. Akalarka on Tattvārthas útra, Calcutta, 7.13.1. 6. Samayasära, 266.