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15 - JAIN WAY OF LIFE AND ETHICAL LIVING AND ENVIRONMENT
Also, a living being with five senses and mind feels maximum pain and hence, for our survival, their destruction involves greater violence.
Therefore, from the practical point of view, for human survival, if we hurt, exploit, or kill other human beings, it is considered the highest violence. The next order of violence is five-sensed animals, then four sensed animals, and so on. Human life can survive by consuming or using one sense living beings (plants, water, air, fire, and earth); which is also considered living a life with minimum violence. Hence, according to Jainism, we should not use or consume any product that involves hurting or destroying five sense beings, four sense beings, three sense beings and two sense beings. Moreover, killing many-sensed beings has a greater negative impact on the environment.
In summary, a living being with one sense (plants, vegetables, water, air, earth etc.) feels minimum pain and its destruction involves minimum violence and it produces a minimum negative impact to the environment.
Jainism advocates vegetarianism and is against raising animals for food, ethical, spiritual, as well as environmental reasons. All Jains believe in vegetarianism and most Jains are vegetarians. Hence, it is of no value to the Jain community at large to discuss the cruelty to animals and death inflicted by the meat industry.
However, a majority of Jains consume dairy products and because animals are not directly killed during the milking operation, these Jains justify that their consumption of dairy products is not in violation of the fundamental principle of Ahimsa.
This may be true in olden times for the following reasons:
In olden times, raising a cow was essential for human survival because a bull was used in farming and transportation, and the cow's dung was used for fertilizer and fire for cooking. The cow's urine was used for Ayurvedic medicine.
The cow's milk was used as a substitute food since the crop production in India was not enough to feed the growth of human
JAINISM AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
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