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KARMA PHILOSOPHY
141
With regard to vivisection, it is done for the purpose of gaining certain physiological knowledge. But, first, we have no right to obtain knowledge at the expense of other living beings and, second, our lack of knowledge is due to a knowledge obscuring karma and if we will remove it we shall have the knowledge without injuring the living beings. In the Jain idea of morality relationships with all living beings are considered, and not merely relationships with man.
Now from the point of view of how much killiog a layman can avoid, living beings can be divided isto:
1. Those heving the power of locomotion,
2. Stationary; trees, etc. and the layman cannot take & vow to refrain killing the stationary ones
from
Now for the sake of comparing the protection to life afforded by a layman with that afforded by a monk, we may represent full protection by the number 16. Therefore in this first division (to apeak roughly] the layman's protection to life would be only balt that afforded by the monk.
Now takirg the killing of moving living beings, how much cau the layman avoid ? There is killing them:
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