Introduction to Jaina Sadhna

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 87

80: An Introduction to Jaina Sadhana
sible. According to Jaina thinkers the violence is of four kinds(i) deliberate or aggresive violence, i.e., intentional killing. (ii) protective violence, i. e., resorting the violence to save the life of one's own or his fellow being or to ensure peace and justice in the society, (iii) occupational violence, i.e., the violence which one commits in his occupation such as farming, tilling the soil or running factories and industries, (iv) violence, which is involved in preforming the daily routine work of a house-holder such as bathing, cooking, walking, etc. A person can proceed towards the completion of non-violent life to the extent as he rises above the physical level. The first form of violence which is deliberate, is to be shunned by all, because it relates to our mental proclivities. So far as the thoughts are concerned, a man is his own master, so it is obligatory for all to be non-violent in this sphere. The other forms of violence, i.e., protective, occupational and violence, involved in daily routine work are inevitable so far as man is living on a physical level. But this does not mean that the ideal of non-violence is not practicable and so it is not necessary for human race.
Non-violence is nothing but to treat all living beings as equal. The concept of equality is the core of the theory of nonviolence. The preaching of non-violence is to honour the each and every form of life. Jainism does not discriminate the human beings on the basis of their caste, creed and colour. According to Jaina point of view, all the barriers of caste, creed and colour are artificial. All the human beings have an equal right to lead a peaceful life. Though violence is unavoidable, yet it can not be the directive principle of our living, because it goes against the judgements of faculty of reasoning and the concept of natural law. If I think that nobody has any right to take my life then on the ground of same reasoning I have also no right to take another's life; the principle 'live on others' or 'living by killng', is