________________
134
An Epitome of Jainism may be and are the same. But their difference is equally marked. Their constitution and composition are different. Their chemical characteristics vary. They occupy obviously different places in the whole range of living beings. It is on this basis that people are split up into vegetarians and nonvegetarians. Vegetarians give up taking lives higher than vegetables, because animals are more evolved and their bodies approximate our own bodies more than the bodies of vegetables do.
I may be allowed to digress here. Live and let live is as simple a motto of life as it is profound. No one has a right to destroy any life. Every one has a right to live.
Now the curious thing is that life thrives on life. No living being can continue its life without another life being destroyed. How to reconcile these two facts: the duty of not-taking another's life, and the right of preserving one's own which necessitates destruction of other life ? The reconciliation can be effected by interpreting these two sister precepts in a possible practical way, and not in an impossible antinomian fashion.
“The ideal practice of non-injury is possible only to the soul in its perfect condition, i.e. when it has freed itself from the last particle of matter (Karma Vargañás). On this side of that happy state, do whatever we will, some life must be transformed into our life in order to sustain it. Therefore what is meant and enjoined is simply this, 'Do not destory life, unless it is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of a higher kind of life.' The purer souls will, of course, not like to sanction even this. But as formulated above, the rule does not sanction hurting or injury: it limits it to the lowest possible minimum. As a supplementary rule we nave: 'And then begin with the least evolved kind of life, for example, with the sthấvars (immobiles).'*
Destruction of any one or more of the ten vitalities is injury. The extent of injury varies with the number of vitalities injured. Immobiles possess four, the least number of vitalities. Mobiles have from six to ten vitalities.
In the soul-calsses above, we found souls to be mobile or immobile. The immobiles are one-sensed beings and have for their bodies vegetables, air, fire, water or earth. Science every day is making progress in discovering these tiny and ultra-microscopic fellow-beings of ours. Plants are credited with conscious life now. Much that was considered inorganic is found in the light of greater knowledge to be organic. Air and fire, water and earth, are the bodies of innumerable living beings. From this point of v search a soul in six kinds of embodiment-earth, water, fire, air, vegetable and mobile.
4. Fifteen Vibratory Activities (Yoga)
All activity of the body, speech, and mind is the cause of the inner modifications or vibrations of life or our vital consciousness. Thus our mundane
* Outlines of Jainism, p. 71.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
