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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
Active compassion
Anukampā, compassion or grace, as it is defined in the Digambara Sūdha Sagar Hindi-English Jain Dictionary, 29 means “If anyone is moved at the sight of the hungry and the miserable offers relief to him, out of pity, then such behavior of that person is love or charity.” Nevertheless, compassion can, and har been, interpreted in two different aspects: the passive and the active. It has sometimes been said by outsiders, and even by some sects within Jainism, that ahimsā, non-violence, and anukampā, compassion, are to be interpreted in a passive way only. Such people will not take initiatives to help those who are suffering; they will not actively lend a helping hand to those in need. If this is practiced by common people, including monks and ascetics, it seems to point to a dogmatic interpretation (perhaps born of hidden arrogance) of the highest aspect of compassion, but without really understanding the teaching. Only when one has really acquired the wisdom of the Great Souls is genuine judgment possible. The teaching is this: Though the omniscient liberated souls are filled with compassion, they are not moved by it. Though they see the suffering of all beings, they have done the only thing which is appropriate: to preach the universal doctrines of self-liberation and karma, which includes the path of shedding of karmas with the aim of reaching ultimate freedom. As this doctrine is given to everyone, the choice is also for everyone. Great saints and monks continuously remind the people of this path. Interfering with the karma of someone who deviates from the innate harmony of his own nature is like numbing his own hand before he puts it in the fire: he will never learn that fire is hot and dangerous, because he lacks the pain which nature has given to sentient beings to teach and warn them. The highest ascetics would no doubt apply this interpretation of compassion and nonviolence to themselves, and when in particular cases, they judge it the best, to others.
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