Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 11

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Buddhism rejected the Vedas and proclaimed Ahimsa (Non-injury) and tapasya (Self-morti. fication ) as effective means of self-purification. But while the Buddhists by and large were relativists, the Jains were totalitarians, and Ahinsa applied not only to human beings but to all creatures.
The Buddha advised his followers to avoid extremes of austerities, physical and mental. He preached the philosophy of the "middle path”, winning thereby the adherence of millions, while Jainism became the religion of a minority after 3,000 years. But Buddhism, through inordinate expansion, lost its pristine purity, while Jainism set the highest and the most rigid standards of life and conduct.
Buddhism rejected the soul theory of early Brahmanism, developed the recondite doctrine of the "non-soul" ( anatma ) and also rejected the dependence on the “oversoul" or God. Jainism, although non-theistic and non-Vedic, maintained the eternity of individual souls and their striving after perfection through rigid discipline and renunciation.
Both Buddhism and Jainism subordinated the emotional and emphasised the rational elements in man. They have thereby given posterity some
of the acutest systems of logic ( syadvada) and