ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

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

Page 392

SORS OF JAN
However so let us see how non-violence developed further on in the light of various sects of Jainism.
Jainism has two broad sects namely vet mbara and Digambara. Both these sects are further splintered into large number of sub-sects, which are headed by different c ryas, many of whom have defined Ahi s in their own way, unmindful of canon and original texts. Some of them brazenly describe the positive aspects of Ahi s, like saving the lives of man and other creatures, feeding the hungry, providing water to thirsty, helping the sick with medicines etc, as undesirable, because in their view, these activities result in generating of karmas, which inhibit one's liberation. They treat such activities as an expression of attachment, which according to them is the cause of bondage and not salvation.
VRU
One of the sub-sects of Jainas has even gone to the extent of describing the act of saving the life of a man or animal in distress, as violence. "(Page 191 "Tirthankar" of "Mahaveer Aur Unka Sarvodya Tirth by Hukam Chand Bharill of Todarmal Smarak). There could not have been a greater travesty or distortion. The problem gets further compounded when such scholars try to project such views as a part of the Jaina religion. Such views, when picked up by scholars, particularly the western ones, lead to their wrong presentation of Jainism. One such example is the book - Heart of Jainism - by Stevenson, who, perhaps getting such erroneous views concluded that Jainism had no heart at all.
When such scholars or c ryas are asked to provide the canonical or original references in support of their unusual stony views, either refer to some texts of much later times or conveniently just parry such questions. Both for the sake of purity of thought and practicability such views need to be questioned and corrected to present an authentic picture of Ahi s in Jainism.
cr nga Sutra, a vet mbara canon comprising the first discourse of Mah vra the 24th and the last Trtha kara of the Jains, delivered about 2550 years ago, defines Ahi s thus:
"The saint with true vision conceives compassion for all the world, in east and west and south and north, and so, knowing the scared lore, he will preach and spread and proclaim it, among those who strive and those who do not, in fact among all those who are willing to hear him...He should do no injury to himself or any one else...The great sage becomes a refuge for injured creatures like an island which the can not overwhelm."
- cr nga Sutra (1.6.5)
In another verse cr nga sutra spells out Ahi s as:
"Thus say all the perfect souls and blessed ones, weather past, present or to come- thus hey speak, thus they declare, thus they proclaim: All things breathing, all things existing, all things living, all beings whatever, should not be slain or treated with violence, or insulted, or tortured, or driven away. This is the pure unchanging eternal low, which the wise ones who know the world have proclaimed, among the earnest and the non-earnest, among the loyal and the non-loyal, among those who have given up punishing others and those who have not done so, among those who are weak and those who are not, among those who delight in worldly ties and those who do not. This is the truth. So it is. Thus it is declared in this religion".
Tattv rtha Sutra of Um sw ti / Um sw mi (7/6), a treatise acceptable to both vet mbara and Digambara sects of Jainas, has also stressed the positive side of Ahi s:
"One should cultivate the feelings of fraternity toward all beings, pleasantness toward the proficient, compassion toward the destitute and equanimity toward the disrespectful unbelievers".
Page 382 of 556
V rasena, the renowned Digambara sage, who lived about 1200 years ago, described compassion as the intrinsic nature of soul in his voluminous commentary of atkhand gama popularly known as Dhaval.
STUDY NOTES version 4.0