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benevolence, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, generosity, kindness, sympathy etc."
94
Ahimsa as a vow for votary: Ahimsa-anuvrata
For Jain votary, this is a minor vow requiring extreme care in all his/her activities to abstain / minimize violence to other living beings as well as to self. This implies; total avoidance of violence against 2 to 5 sensed living beings and its minimization towards one sensed living beings.95 This vow categorises violence in four categories, namely intentional (not allowed at all), professional and lifestyle (to be minimized) and defensive (to be practised when necessary and as a last resort). The transgressions of this vow are: binding living beings in captivity, beating living beings, mutilating limbs, overloading excessive weight on living beings, withdrawing or providing insufficient food or water to living beings.
Ahimsa as a vow by Gandhi:
Basis:
Ahimsa according to Gandhi is not a philosophical principle but it is the very breathe of his life. Gandhi says "I have been practicing with precision Ahimsa and its possibilities for an unbroken period of over fifty years in all walks of life. I have applied it in every walk of life domestic, institutional, economic and political. I know of no single case in which it has failed. Where it seemed sometimes to have failed I ascribe it to my imperfections.... In the course of my search for Truth, Ahimsa came to me. Universalization of Ahimsa is my life's mission. I have no interest in living except for the fulfilment of that mission."97
He preferred violent resistance than coward submission to suffer injustice; hence he did not limit practice of Ahimsa just for saints but extended it to all. He did not prescribe absolute Ahimsa and
Pg.160 Gandhi & Jainism
