Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 87

[ 80 ] of thought. This belief is commonly shared by Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism. So too the belief in the intrinsic purity of the self and its potency to realize its real nature by controlling passions, subduing senses and developing philosophical enlightenment is common to these ancient Indian religions.
Jainism, however, distinguishes itself by its special accent on the doctrine of karman, on the mortification of flesh, on moral discipline, on the principle of non-violence, and on the individual soul's eventual evolution into an onniscient (kevalin).
These philosophical insights and religious truths revealed and founded by the spiritually Supreme Tirthankara Mahavira and his equally emenent predecessors, and propagated by his successors form today a very precious part of our spiritual heritage. Only future can tell how much of it we shall assimilate as we emerge from the present-day cauldron of warring ideologics, intercrossing value systems and conflicting norms of conduct that are symptomatic of a deep crisis in culture.