ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 152

radical manner. Any other conception of freedom can only be a perversion of truth and an abuse of words.
In ancient Indian society, there existed a varied system of traditional rights, civil and political, which was largely of popular origin and was fundamental in Brahmanical law codes. The Jainas did not seek to replace this traditional system of law and institutions by any comprehensive alternative. It may also be admitted that the early Jaina canon does not evince any systematic interest in the reformulation of legal and political institutions. However, it does reflect over ideas and values which involve the state and connect it with a general philosophy of life.
The Indian faith recognizes one absolute and unconditional right, that of life. It is not a right created or recognize by law. To a certain extent, respect for life is admitted by all ethical, social and political systems but many of them subject it to significant restrictions such as the context of human life. Indeed, all political systems presuppose the justification of killing as punishment and of killing as part of a soldier's duty. Practically all legal systems recognize the right to kill in self-defense.
In Jainism, that respect to a life includes its life, happiness and freedom. Killing, inflicting injury and pain, compulsion abusing, all these are modes of violence and violate the respect to living beings of all orders, from the microscopic to the human. The Jaina principle of ahimsa has a characteristic and unique comprehensiveness since it prohibits the use of force in any manner against any form of life.
In this comprehensiveness, the principle is apparently inconsistent with ordinary secular life. The Jainas themselves realized this, and held that while the monks ought to seek to realize ahimsa fully, the man of world or householder could follow it with limitations. It is this limited principle of ahimsa which ought to form the guiding principle of legislation and policy. By following this upāsakadharma, i. e. limited principles of conduct; the householder has an opportunity of training himself till he gets matured for renouncing the world. The essential principle of human conduct and society is the recognition of the self as value lying beyond the instinctive process of nature and the recognition of similarity between oneself and others. In their ignorance, men tend to disregard these principles, but rational reflection prepares them for such recognition and spiritually enlightened persons guide them in this regard.
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