Jain Journal 1998 10

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

Page 15

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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXIII, No. 2 October 1998
as they object to 'thirst for existence' (bhavatṛṣṇā). A saint must abide in indifference without caring for life, without caring for death. He will not commit suicide in order to reach Nirvana sooner. Is not suicide a desperate act of disgust and desire-disgust with existence and desire for rest? The pilgrim I-tsing says that Indian Buddhists abstain from suicide and in general from self-torture.41
But there are many stories42 to prove that suicide may be in certain cases the actual cause or the occasion of the attainment of Arhatship, one step lower than the ideal of Buddhabood, although in other cases it may be pre-mature and sinful. The Mahāyāna Buddhism praises and deprecates suicide as self-surrender and worship. The Bodhisattva of the past have practised in that way43 any heroic deed (dukkara) (e.g. in the ancient Buddhist canon Chariyapiṭaka, Jātaka).
3.3.2 Justification of violence for the sake of duty and promotion of social good
Besides religious suicide, self-mortification etc. which are justified on religious grounds, both Buddhism and Jainism seek justification for violence in certain other cases. Although Jainism is 'absolute' about non-injury to living beings (Amṛtacandra and Amitagati go to the extent of saying that it is sinful to kill even dangerous, poisonous animals), still it prescribes a different life style to the layman who engages daily in unavoidable injuries to living beings because of duty and responsibility.
To ascertain the truth that 'absolute' non-injury is the only requirement for Mokṣa, Jaina tradition believes that as long as one is engaged in worldly life one cannot attain salvation as the scriptures prescribe. And hence one has to become a monk for sometime in life (or aspire to religious life) to practise the moral principle of Ahimsa in a more perfect manner. There have been Jaina kings generals and soldiers not only mythical but historical as well. The Jaina Acāryas make mention of them in their sacred books. They do not call them heretics (mithyadṛṣṭi) because of blood they shed in wars.44
41. J. Thakkasu, Tr. A Record of Buddhist Religion, Oxford, 1896, p. 197ff. 42. Story of Siha (Therigāthā, 77); of Sappadasa (Theragatha, 408); of Vakkali (Theragatha, 350); of Godhika (Kathāvatthu, 1.2); also Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 35, p. 273ff.
43. Story of the future Šakyamuni giving his body to feed a starving tigress, Jātakamālā, 1, Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. 1.
44. Example of Chandragupta Maurya (4 cent. B.C.); Kumarapala, king of Gujarat (12 cent. A.D.), Jaina Gazette, Vol. 12, p. 266.