________________
AHIMSA
violence (iv: 43); certainly the non-appearance of attachment and other passions is ahimsā (iv: 44).
From the Āchārānga Sūtra: Violence is a great impediment to spiritual awakening, and someone who indulges in doing harm to living beings will not get enlightenment; haiming other beings is always harmful and injurious to oneself - it is the main cause of someone's non-enlightenment (i.1.2).
From the Sūtrakritānga Sūtra: Knowing that all evils and sorrows arise from injury to living beings, and that it leads to unending enmity and is the root cause of great fear, a wise man who has become awakened should refrain from all sinful activities (i.10.21).
From the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra: Seeing that everything that happens to somebody affects him personally, one should be friendly towards all beings; being completely free from fear and hatred, one should never injure any living being (6.6).
From the Daśavaikālika Sūtra: All living creatures desire to live. Nobody wishes to die. And hence it is that the Jain monks avoid the terrible sin of injury to living beings.
The most forceful statement is found in the Jñānārnava: Violence alone is the gateway to the miserable state, it is also the ocean of sin; it is itself a terrible hell and is surely the densest darkness (8.19); and: If a person is accustomed to commit injury, than all his virtues like selflessness, greatness, desirelessness, penance, liberality or munificence are worthless (viji:20).
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org