Jain Journal 1982 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 26

JULY, 1982
the other four vows can also be successfully observed. At this context, I remember R. William's observation on Amrtacandra, author of the Purusartha-siddhyupaya Amrtacandra explains "every other vrata is but a restatement in different terms of the content of the first".17 Hence we can say that ahimsā also acts as a Master Key for other vows to be operated for salvation.
At one spot18 the Acarya, in his own sarcastic style, brings out the universal range and positive nature of ahimsa by contrasting it with a Brahmanic religious dictum :
gobambhaṇithivadhamettiniyartti jadi have paramadhammo paramo dhammo kiha so na hoi jā savva bhūda dayā
21
If abstention from killing merely the cow, the Brahmin and the woman could make one religion supreme, why could not another religion, with compassion unto all beings, be accepted as supreme?
And lastly, we can not afford to ignore Sivarya's exemplification19 of social equality and corrigible opportunity for any violent culprit, admitted by the practice of ahimsa in Jainism, through an illustration of the story of a caṇḍāla, who was thrown in the Simsumara region of hell, but who, later, was worshipped by gods for observing the vow of ahimsā for a short time.
In conclusion, we can note: This portion of the text in the Mulārādhana presents a panoramic view of the various facets of the theory and practice of ahimsa as a great vow. One of the gahās 20 contains the basic concept of ahimsā in Jainism—almost an indirect and distant echo of Lord Mahavira's words on ahimsa. By liberally using similies, illustrations etc., rather than often advancing logical arguments, the author, who is the master of canonical knowledge as well as a skilled teacher, imprints on our mind the great, all comprising, all pervading, pivotal, universal and positive nature of ahimsa in the system of the ascetic (and also partly applicable to the lay) conduct. Hence there is no wonder if some of the above cited gāhās prominently appear under the topic of ahimsa in the recent learned compilations like the Jinavāņi21 and encyclopaedic works like the Jainendra Siddhanta Kosa.22
17 Jaina Yoga, London, 1963, p. 64.
18 No. 792.
19 No. 822.
20 No. 777.
21 Ed. Dr. H. L. Jain, Bharatiya Jnanapitha, New Delhi, 1975.
22 Part I, Ed. Jinendra Varni, Bharatiya Jnanapitha, New Delhi, 1970.