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clothes and shelter. Hence the destruction of some form of life and limited possession are essential for human survival.
The goal of Jainism is to minimize the violence and negative impact of our existence to other living beings and the environment.
In his book "Jain Darshan" Muni Shri Nyayvijaji explains very clearly the following definition of minimum violence which is to be used only for our existence/survival. This guideline applies to laypeople (Shravak and Shravika) only. Monks and nuns have to practice total non-violence.
Definition of Minimum Violence
Jain philosophy believes that violence is proportional to the state of development of soul's knowledge (Jnan Guna of a living being). Also the soul's development of knowledge is proportional to number of senses it possesses. Hence for our survival, if we hurt or kill even a single five sense living being it is considered higher violence compared to millions of one sense living beings.
A human being possesses all five senses and a very developed mind and hence to hurt, to exploit (slavery, child labor etc.), or kill any human being for our survival results in the highest form of a violent act.
An animal also possesses all five senses but a less developed mind and hence to hurt, to exploit, or kill any animal for our survival results in the 2nd highest violent act.
Similarly killing, exploiting, or hurting a living being with four, three, and two senses results in a lesser violent act.
Since a human life can survive by consuming and using only one sense living beings (fruits, vegetables, air, water, earth, fire etc.), Jainism prohibits the destruction and exploitation of higher sense living beings for our survival.
Also the modern science quantified that, the killing or exploiting of higher (five, four, three etc.) sensed living beings has a much greater negative impact on the environment.
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Hence, Jainism advocates strict vegetarianism and is against raising animals for food for ethical, spiritual, as well as environmental reasons.
To read/download Muni Shri Nyayvijaji's original article in Gujarati and its Hindi and English translation go to this link: http://www.jainelibrary.org/$Muni Nyayvijayji on Himsa and Suvival/.index.php
3.0 Universal Law of Mother Nature
The following law of Mother Nature is true for mothers of human as well as for animal under natural healthy environment.
⚫ No mother (cow and human) produces milk unless she delivers a baby first.
After the birth of a calf, the cow starts to produce milk only to feed her calf. She also produces just enough milk that is needed for her calf under natural healthy environment (same as human).
The cow slowly stops producing milk after her calf reaches a weaning age (same as human).
⚫ Nature has not made any provision for mother cows to produce more milk than the need of their calves under natural healthy environment.
Exceptions
However until a calf reaches to a weaning age if a mother cow becomes sick then she produces less milk. In this case her calf needs to feed substitute milk product for her proper growth.
Also if her calf becomes sick before weaning age, then temporarily she (the calf) consumes less milk. In this case:
Mother cow has left over milk in her udder. We need to remove the leftover milk so that she can continually produce the same quantity of milk. This way there will be enough milk when the calf recovers from the sickness.
If the leftover milk is not removed then on the next day the mother cow will produce less milk because she thinks her calf needs less milk.
