Page Text
________________
114 denied to a patient suffering from good.1
Jaina Ethics fever for his physical
Some misconceptions about non-violence:
There are certain misconceptions about non-violence. Some hold that there is no violence in taking the flesh of those animals who have met natural death. It is not true, because in the flesh of a dead body, nigoda creatures of same genus are constantly being generated which are killed even by touching of that flesh.2 Similar argument is advanced against taking of honey which has itself dropped down from th honeycomb. It is due to this existence of nigodas in the carcass of an animal that the plea for saving many lives of small creatures by taking away the life of one animal of huge size, is refuted.
Even violent animals should not be killed either with an intention of saving the possible destruction of other animals by them or to save them from the possibility of incurring the great sin of violence. The only way of removing one away from sin is to teach him to control his passions and not to destroy him. Even mercy-killing is a form of violence. The animal, which is suffering, is a victim of his own past karmans, and his suffering cannot be cut short by killing him.
Violence in the name of religion:
Violence is not to be justified for the sake of so-called religious rituals. Non-violence, compassion and love is the core of every religion and yet in many of the great religions of the world we find that violence is prescribed in the name of religion itself. Jainism has vehemently opposed all such violence.
It is argued that dharma is difficult to comprehend; and, therefore, even though violence is otherwise bad, when sanc
1. Ganin Siddhasena on Tattvārthasūtra, 7.20. 2. Puruşārthasiddhyupāya, 66-68. 3. Ibid., 70. 4. Ibid., 82. 5. Ibid., 83-84... 6. Ibid., 85,
Jain. Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001334 |
| Book Title | Jaina Ethics |
| 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 |