Ethical Doctrines in Jainism

SR No.: 006955
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 106

84
ETHICAL DOCTRINES IN JAINISM
taking of things without their being given by the owner.1 This necessarily implies the presence of internal intense passions in one's own mind. In this world, transient things constitute the external Prāņas of a man, and he who thieves or plunders them is said to commit theft, inasmuch as this is tantamount to depriving a man of bis Prāņas. This, then, is not other than Himsā.*
ASTEYĀŅUVRATA OR ACAURYāṆUVRATA: Not to take anything without the permission of others is a discipline par-excellence; but it lies beyond the power of the house-holder; so he is required to use such things freely as are of common use without their being given, such as well-water, sand and the like. This is Acauryaṇuvrata or gross form of the vow of non-stealing. According to Samantabhadra the observer of the householder's vow of non-stealing neither takes himself those things which are unoffered, placed, dropped, and forgotten by others nor gives them to anyone else. Kārttikeya includes even the purchasing of costly things at reduced prices under stealing, which is probably due to the fact that one may sell a thing after getting it by improper methods." Somadeva holds that the underground property belongs to the king or the state; so also the property of unknown ownership. To take the possession of property at the death of one's own kinsman is justified, but, when he is alive, his sanction is required to sustain the householder's vow of non-stealing." The householder who gives himself to this vow must abstain himself from the following Aticāras:10 1) adulteration, 2) abetment of theft, 3) receiving stolen property, 4) violating state rules, and 5) the use of false weights and measures.
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NATURE OF ABRAHMA (UNCHASTITY): We now pass on to dwell upon the nature of unchastity and Brahmacaryāṇuvrata. The copulation arising from sexual passion is Abrahma. This is Himsa in two ways.11 In the first place, many living beings are deprived of their vitalities in the vagina in the sexual act, just as a hot rod of iron, when it is introduced in a tube filled with sesamum seeds, burns them up.11 Secondly, psychical life is affected because of the emergence of sexual
1 Puru. 102.
2 Ibid. 3 Puru. 103. 4 Puru. 104. 5 Puru. 106.
6 Yo. Sa., II. 66; Ratna. Srava. 57; Vasu. Srava. 211; Amita. Srava. VI. 59.
7 Kärtti. 335. 8 Yas. and Ic. p. 265; Sāgā. Dharma. IV. 48.
9 Yas. and Ic. p. 265. 10 Puru. 185, Ratna. Srava. 58; Tasu. VII. 27.; Sāgā. Dharma. IV. 50.; Amita. Srava. VII. 5.; Uvasagadasão. I. 47; Cärjtrasāra. p. 10-11. 11 Puru. 107. 12 Ibid. 108.