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THE ADYAR LIBRARY BULLETIN
or a living being. For there cannot be the least doubt that with regard to this important distinction a pindi is considered to be a dead thing as this expression whatever may be its precise meaning denotes in any case a variety of food which is prepared by cooking,65 i.e. by killing the seeds if this was not already done even earlier.66 In contradistinction to a pindi the young green barley plants in the field are evidently considered as living beings to eat which 67 constitutes an act of himsă in that it causes their separation from life (prāṇaviyoga):
6. 2.
It seems advisable to dwell a little longer on the concept of himsă as implied here. For, it has clearly two aspects which have to be distinguished, though ultimately they can not be separated from each other, either doctrinally or historically. On the one hand it is the consumption of seeds capable of germination which is considered as himsā, on the other an act of himsā is taken to be committed by eating plants in the field. Many of the grammatical authors quoted above contribute considerably to the clarification of this latter idea by their explanations of the expression kṣetrastha etc.; yet in that they think of the cereal plants only, although with explicit reference to the various stages of growth, beginning with sprouting, they pass through, one might gather the impression that is only these plants themselves which are regarded as living beings by them. Nägeśa, however, expressly states (v. § 2. 4. above) that the idea of caitanya likewise includes the
