Introduction to Jainsim

Author(s): Dewan Bahadur A B Lathe
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 65

SAINISM
:57
Col. Todd. Mr. Aptc supports his view with a quotation from His view seems plausible owing to the excesses to which that principle is reduced by a small number of modren Jains. In accounting for the peculiarities of a race, it should be rememberid, principles expounded in writings that are not reached by many, should not be compelled to yield more than they imply. In the first place, it should be admitted that theories fashion the minds of their advocates as much as they receive their colour from the minds they occupy. It may be as true that the Nonkilling theory in its extreme form, may have caused some minds to bc aversc 10 warlike pursuits, as that the originally simple and sensible Ahimsa may have-nay, is admitted on all hands to have been reduced to its absurdities and immasculated forms by some of thic later Jains who were already being borne alone the current of foreign domination. The debasement of the principlc may be the result of the degraded ages and the minds that made thc ages so. We should also note that we are always apt to altach too much value to doctrines and too little to men. Then it is also important to examine what really the Jain Shastras teach. The full Ahimsa implies absolute freedom from llic conditions of ile world and hence the Jains who are on the higher stages of asceticism are directed to desist from killing by means that so unnecessarily meet with ridicule from unsympathetic observers. The ordinary houscholder has no such hard and fast rulc to obcy. He is not to kill from motives afforded by passions. That alone is killing which gives "Spain to lives owing to our minds, tongue or body being affected by passion" (Sliri Uma Swami) This allows latitude enough for any ordinary life to carry on liis usual avocations that necessarily imply 3 certain amount of unintentional harm to others. The Kshatriya is yet niore plainly enjoined to follow his duty and do his Dharni by being a true and generous warrior. The ultimate