Mahavira Jayanti Smarika 1976

SR No.: 014032
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhanvarlal Polyaka
Publisher: Rajasthan Jain Sabha Jaipur
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 392
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 22 MB

Page 368

are, after being influenced by Hiravijaya, also known to have taken the vow of not to kill animals and eat meat.1 Further, from an inscription of 1715, we know that the oilmen of the town of Deoli (Pratapgarh State) had agreed to stop working their mills for 44 days in a year at the request of Sāraiyā and Jivarā ja of the Mahā jana community during the reign of Mahārāval Prithvisjṁha.2 They did so with a view to avoid jiva-himsā as much as they possibly could. The principle of ahimsä had its impact on Mahatma Gandhi also. He applied it to almost all spheres of life and made it a spiritual crusade for the rights of all living beings. A large portion of the Jaina population considers him a true follower of Mahā vira's doctrine of ahimsā.3
Mahāvira's doctrine of abimsā has had a salutary effect on diet. Giving up meat-eating and adherence to vagetarian diet went a long way introducing various and delicious veg..dishes. The vegetarian diet, in its turn, implies a moral act which strengthens man's control over himself in the first instance, and then over his environment.4 Then, it could make people live longer. Medical Science has also, now, shown that there are indications that vegetarians live longer than non-vegetarians,5
Besides, the principle of abiṁsā led to the mitigation of the rigorous and ruthless criminal justice in India. The penal code was modified and humanized. 6
2.
K. C. Jain : Jainism in Rajasthan, pp. 209-210. Annual Report, Rajputana Museum, 1934-1935, No. 17. Many people trace the influence of Jaina St. Srimad Rāichandra on Mahatma Gandhi. See. Bulletin of the Ramkrishna Mission, XXV, No. 4, April, 1974, p. 94. This is, perhaps, what Mahatma Gandhi meant when he talked of the "moral basis of vegetarianism.' See, The Illustrated Weekly of India, XCVI, 42, October 19, 1975, pp. 17-18.
Then, the vegetarians represent a bigher state of consciousness in the human being. The evolutionary game is one which the vegetarians are fond of playing both ways. Even as they point out man's natural affinity to the ape, with its vegetarian habits, they also maintain that vegetarianism is the culminating phase in the dietary changes that have marked the homo-sapiens' transformation from beast to man. See, The Illustrated Weekly of India, XCVI, 42, October 19, 1975, p. 18.
The Cholas are famous for (rather defamed) the leniency they showed to the criminals.
Mahavira Jayanti Smarika, 76