Jainism and Democracy

SR No.: 001645
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: I A S S Jain Conference New Delhi
Total Pages: 184
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & society
File Size: 8 MB

Page 158

MAHAVIRA : A GREAT DEMOCRAT
145
democracy. The entire system of Jainism, its philosophy, its logic and its ethics, is dominated with this spirit. The “Samayika" prescribed as a daily rite for Jains is nothing but a practice for implementing the spirit of equality into life. Mitti me savvabhutesu ( I have friendship with all beings ) is the strain of Jain prayers.
Non-violence is the first offshoot of the principle of equality. One should feel for others in the same way as he feels for himself. You do not like to injury to your own body, mind and soul. Similarly, others also don't like it. It is, therefore, an imperative duty of a democrat that he should not injure anybody, in body as well as feelings. According to Jainism injury is a very wide term, It covers not only physical injury but that of mind and soul also. When you attack the feelings of a person you injure his mind. The principle of non-injury even to the mind has laid the foundation of Jain logic in the form of nonabsolutism (anekantavāda). It means that all our judgments are relative and nothing is absolute. The same thing, which is good for you, can be bad for your colleague, and the latter also has got a perfect right to form his judgment according to his choice. In spite of apparent contradiction both judgments are correct in their own relations. Nevertheless, people try to impose their views on other, fight for it and attack their opponents vehemently. The principle of non-absolutism teaches that in place of rebuking our opponent we should try to understand him, study the circumstances, environment and the mental make-up under which he is speaking. We must honour the mind of our opponent as we do our own. If there is
www.jamelibrary.org