________________
478)
[ The Jain Principle of Ahiams
when the strong oppress the weak, one should remain indifferent. A layman can never tolerate this nor should he ever tolerato it. He cannot easily tolerate injustice and oppression at the hands of those who are ambitious, wicked, licentious, and given to dacoity and robbery and sinners who spoil the chastity of women.
(c) The simple meaning of Ahimsa is that no Grihastha should ever commit Himsa for gaining selfish ends or for satisfying his petty wants. He should not even try to fulfil his evil desires.
(d) Jain Ahimsa never stands in the way of individual selfrespect and honour; nor is it opposed to bravery, courage, patriotism love of country, love of family, and prosperity of a nation.
() It is never the intention of Jain Ahimsa that a man should not use his legal rights for keeping alive his feelings of self-defence, self-help, self-respect, self-control and self-awakening.
(f) Jain 'Ahimsa thinks it to be its birth right to keep the purity of our girls, to maintain the chastity of our women and to see that the infants are not snatched away from the arms of their mothers. It is not even against inflicting a more severe punishment than the capital punisinent (if there be any ) on those who pollute and spoil our daughters, wives, mothers and children.
(g) Jain Ahimsa is not a mere negative teaching, It is full of substance and spirit. It shows us the way to real moral culture; inspiring us every moment to render service to others, and carries us beyond the bounds of narrow selfishness to the limitless region of universel brotherhood,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org