Religious Quest of India

SR No.: 011031
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J N Farquhar, Griswold
Publisher: J N Farquhar Griswold
Total Pages: 365
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 240

214 THE JAINA LAYMAN AND
One must never sell artificial manure (as it is sometimes made of the bones of dead animals), or take any contracts for building houses or sinking wells that involve much digging (for one might dig an insect in two). One has to be very much on one's guard if one thinks of selling anything: one must never sell ivory (for that might be made of elephants' tusks), or butter or honcy (the latter involving the destruction of bee life), or fur or hair (lest any jiva should have been pained), or sealing-wax (for insccts might be killed by it). A Jaina may not sell opium or any poison (lest the buyer should use it to take life), neither may he sell mills (for machinery causes many insect deaths). He is very ham. pered with regard to agriculturc: he may not dig, burn weeds in a field, drain water from land, wells, or tanks (lest fish should dic), or even rent land that has been drained by some one else. All of these restrictions on trade and agriculture have had the very doubtful benefit of forcing Jaina more and more into the profession of money-lenders; but the last clause of the vow has certainly proved beneficial, for it forbids slave-owning and the keeping of any animal or woman for any cruel purpose, and is considered so important that it is rehearsed every day.
The eighth vow, the Anartha danda, is designed to guard Anartha against unnecessary evils. It runs : danda
I take the vow called Anartha Danda Viramaņa, which has four divisions : not to do the two evil meditations, not to be careless about keeping or using weapons, not to persuade people to do evil.'
The vow contains four divisions: first; one promises (Apadhyāna) never to hope that evil may befall some one else, or to think evil of any one; next (Pramāda carya), to be as careful as possible not to take life through careless. ness, but to cover all oil, milk, or water in which a fly might be drowned ; again, remembering the injuries that are often accidentally inflicted through weapons, one promises (Hiisādāna) not only to keep as few actual weapons as possible but also as few knives or other things that could
viii.
vrata.