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Religion in everyday life
of the Earth. According to Jaina tradition, Lord Rşabhadeva was the person who first propagated agriculture as a way of life in India. He initiated the people of his time into the art of agriculture. In that bygone period agriculture was absolutely necessary for the development of the human race. The Jaina tradition refers to agricultural activity as "ārya karma" - the activity of the noble man.
The popular aspirants of Jaina tradition themselves indulged in agricultural activity, thus giving it an important place in Jaina history and culture. Of course there were those in the middle ages who labelled it as a violent activity, but the chief propogators of Jaina tradition referred to agriculture as "ārya karma".
The middle ages were a time when moral values deteriorated and the very meaning of the vows of non-violence and nonpossessiveness changed, allowing man to commit acts that were hitherto considered sinful and violent. This also had an effect on the role of agriculture and soon it was demoted in the social context as the profession only meant for the lower strata of society.
Thus, somewhere along the way, the zeal with which our forefathers began this crusade against violence has become diluted with the long passage of time. Many people gave up agriculture considering it to be a sinful activity. To prove their point, they started looking for parallel reference in the āgamas, but nowhere in the āgamas was there a reference to agriculture being an activity of intense sin. It is stated in the āgamas that the result of a sinful activity is the passage to hell. Now just imagine, if agriculture is falsely propagated as a sinful activity, how can one expect anyone to follow it as a way of life? The masses were discouraged from considering it as a means of earning because what was the point of hardwork if it took one to hell, they reasoned. And so it came to be that such false arguments influenced the minds of the people and the Jains steered away from agriculture.
Actually, the reason for propounding the production of food grains through agriculture was a means to steer people
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