________________
186
INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
The naked monks we met had all made such vows. The serious pilgrim towards truth is very much aware of the courage it takes to make such a vow, and of the consequences of failure to keep it.
The core of all Jain ethics is ahimsā, non-violence, the avoidance of giving injury, physically, mentally, or in words. This includes one's own actions as well as one's responsibility for or support for violent actions by others. The main difference between the lay and mendicant paths is the strictness with which ahimsā is practiced. Every Jain will always avoid killing, or being indirectly responsible for killing, the forms in which souls are incarnated, whether human or animal, and as much as possible even plant and mineral lives. Of course they disagree with animal sacrifices such as practiced by certain religious groups, or misuse of animals in scientific laboratories. If modern science had grown up within a Jain culture, no research would ever have taken place which does harm to animals or any other living being, and they would have studied life directly, instead of analyzing corpses from which the conscious essence has flown. Indeed the world would have looked entirely different, without slaughter, without wars, without · man-induced extinction of species, and without any form of environmental degradation. The Jains prove that such a way of life is
possible.
The most important lay vows are called anuvrata - “atom vows": 1) non-violence; 2) truth, not lying, however subtly, under any condition, which involves great care in speaking at all times, and perhaps not speaking when this could result in harm to any creature; 3) non-stealing, or not taking anything that is not given; 4) no sexual misconduct, i.e. sex outside marriage, and excessive indulgence in sexual pleasures with one's partner; 5) non-possession and nonattachment. Possessions, then, are material objects as well as internal possessions, passions, sentiments, or attachments in general.
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
