Concept of Pancasila in Indian Thaought

SR No.: 001666
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamla Jain
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 290
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 16 MB

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The Concept of Pancasila in Indian Thought
of this term as celibacy is only a restricted interpretation of the etymological meaning based on the way of living of the student, his simplicity and his control on the senses (including sex). This restricted interpretation became the chief moral principle for the Šramaņical thinkers. They profess this ideal not only in its extreme form, for the moderate version of this principle is manifested in the precept of the laity as partial control of sex desire and the restriction of this desire to one's wife only. On this point both the Śramanical and the Brāhmanical exponents agree. The cemmon ground for this agreement is obvious, i.e, social orderliness. But, for the latter it is supreme righteousness and for the former it is a lesser evil to avoid the greater evil.
The precept of truth, the fourth in Buddhism and the second in non-Buddhist systems, is important for both the Brāhmaṇical and the Sramaņical trends. This is the only principle which the two trends of thought openly emphasize. It is usually said that out of the five only two are the primary precepts, viz, non-violence and truth. In the earlier Brāhmaņical trend, however, it seems that truth is understood as even more important than non-violence, though later on, in the Brāhmaṇical trend also, just as in the Sramaņical system recognition to 'sarvahita' (well-being of all) was given, and it was considered the inducing force of truth, a fact which can be seen in the Mahābhārata and the Patañjala-Yoga System.
It appears a little surprising that how a trend (the Brāhmaņical) insisting so much on the social values could emphatically establish the supremacy of truth which is more an individual virtue, and how the opposite of truth, i.e. falsehood (if it is not in contradiction with non-violence) could at all affect social orderliness. Actually, its impact on social organization is not direct, until and unless it clashes with non-violence. But it can be remarked that the very origin of the Brāhmaṇical "truth' lies in order liness or Rta as the Ķgveda points out that disorder or An-fta is understood