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THE NINE CATEGORIES OF life which one will spend as a god (Devatā āyuşya), or a human being (Manusya ayusya), or a lower animal (Tiryañć ayusya). The greatest and the final reward of punya is Tirthankara nāmakarma, which ensures one at last becoming a Tirthankara.
The Fourth Category: Pāpa. The
In order to understand the religion of the Jaina we must eighteen
een try and grasp their idea of sin, for it is a very different kinds of Sin. conception from the Western, being in fact often ceremonial
rather than moral. i. Jiva To take any life seems to the Jaina the most heinous hińsā.
of all crimes and entails the most terrible punishment; yet the central thought of Jainism is not so much saving life as refraining from destroying it. 'Ahiriisā parama dharma-Destroy no living creature! Injure no living creature! This is the highest religion !' declared a modern Jaina lecturer, and with almost Irish eloquence he goes on to say: 'I stand before you this noon to spcak on a religion whose glory the dumb creatures, the cows, the goats, the sheep, the lambs, the hens, the pigeons, and all other living creatures, the beasts and the birds sing with their mute tongues; the only religion which has for thousands of years past advocated the cause of the silent-tongued animals : the only religion which has denounced slaughter of animals for sacrifice, food, hunting, or any purpose whatever.'1 'The foundation principle of the Jaina religion', writes another, 2 'is to abstain from killing.' They even call their faith the religion of non-killing (Ahirnsă dharma).
To people believing thus, killing (Hiinsa) is the greatest sin and abstaining from killing (Ahirsā) the most binding moral duty. There is a higher and a lower law for ascetics and for the laity. A monk must strive not to take any life
i Lecture by Mr. Lāla Benārsi Dāss, Jain Itihās Society, Agra, 1902,
pp. I ff.
2 Popatlal K. Shāh, Jaina Dharma Nirupana, p. 33.
