Jaina Philosophy and Religion

SR No.: 001604
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nyayavijay
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 500
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Epistemology
File Size: 12 MB

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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
worms, to put on ornaments of pearls obtained after having killed the five-sensed fish and similarly to use and enjoy other things whose production involve large scale violence or killing, then for me there is no way out but to register my partnership in that large scale violence.
Before using things, one desirous of spiritual welfare should find out as to whether production of those things involves very little violence or much violence. He should use things whose production involves very little violence. He should scrupulously avoid the use of those things whose production involves large scale violence. It is not possible to observe the vows of non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence and nonpossession without limiting properly the quantity of things one uses. It is so because man (or society) who indulges in the excessive use and enjoyment of things has to take recourse to the large scale violence in the mass-production of those things for satisfying his inordinate and limitless desire for the use and enjoyment of those things. Vices or sins like telling lies, doing injustice to others, exploiting others, etc., are the results of the unbridled desire for enjoying worldly things. And to satisfy this ever growing desire one has to struggle hard to acquire ever more possessions. All sins and vices arise from this dreadful desire. It is the function of strong will-power or mental strength to curb properly the desire for worldly enjoyment. And such a strong-willed or strong-minded man can be saved from many sins and vices and can achieve prosperity and spiritual welfare very easily.
The essence of the vow can be put in one sentence: the vow of limiting the quantity of things one uses consists in renouncing the professions in which large scale violence is involved, scrupulously avoiding food, drink, clothes, ornaments, utensils, etc., whose production involves large scale violence and limiting the quantity, for one's use, of even those things whose production involves very little violence.
Purposeless Evil Activity of the form of Evil Brooding
The Jaina thinkers have recognised two types of evil brooding or inauspicious concentration, viz., one pertaining to pains (arta) and the other pertaining to terribly harmful ideas (raudra). The latter is included in the purposeless evil activities. It is a constant reflection related to violence, untruthfulness, theft, protection-of-an-acquisition. It consists in caressing the ideas of vanquishing, imprisoning, beating, torturing, mutilating, lying, despoiling, thieving, doing injustice to others, accumulating wealth by any