Ahimsa Varsh 2600th Birth Anniversary of Mahavir Swami

SR No.: 006949
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Naresh Jain, P Jayaraman
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 64
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

Page 45

Ahimsa: The Heart
Of Jainism
- Dr. Kumarpal Desai
himsa (non-violence), has been the sheet-anchor of
Jainism. Ahimsa is one of the basic virtues. Nowhere else in the other religious traditions has this basic virtue been so scientifically, scn\pulously and thoroughly integrated with the main doctrine. Jainism is the only tradition, which has consistently allowed this tenet soak into the very essentials of its teachings and practices. This singular uncompromising emphasis on Abimsa is the special and exclusive feature of Jainism. In Jainism, Ahimsa is not mere human sympathy; it is empathy, the urge to identifyr oneself completely with other persons, other living beings, with the whole universe,
Bhagwan Mahavir said, "If you kill someone, it is your self you kill. If you overpower someone, it is yourself you overpower. If you torment
some one, it is yourself you torment. If you harm, someune, it is yourself you harm, "A wise man knows this and so he does not kill, nor does he overpower or torment anyone.
The heart of Jainism is non-violence. Positively stated, Jainism is a religion of compassion, universal love and friendliness. It aims at the welfare of all living beings, and not of man alone. It maintains that living beings are infinite, all so called empty spaces in the universe are filled with minute living beings. According to it, there are countless single-sense organisms that take the subtlest possible units of material elements -earth, water, fire and air - as their bodies, Fresh earth is alive but when it is baked it becomes dead. Fresh water from a well, etc. is alive but when it is boiled or influenced by mixing some other substance it
becomes dead. Vegetables, trees, plants, fruits, etc. do have life but when they are dried, cut or cooked they die. To avoid injury to them as t'ar as possible, man is advised to use them discreetly. He should resist from polluting water, air, etc. and thereby perpetrating violence to them. Worms, insects, animals, etc. help in keeping ecological balance thus they help man. And domestic animals have for ages been a constant and faithful aid to man in civilizing himself. From the ultimate standpoint of their original pure pristine state, all living beings are uniform in their nature. Jainism teaches to look upon them as upon one's own self. Inflicting injury to them is inflicting injury to one's own self. se
The Jain dictum parasparopagraho jivanam that is "living beings render service to one another offers an endearing alternative to the
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