Jain Journal 1998 10

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

Page 16

SEKHAR : THE ŚRAMANA RESPONSE TO THE HUMAN PREDICAMENT
47
Thus we see in Jain tradition that unavoidable circumstances and duty-consciousness make allowance for violence. Although the Jains profess that there is no himsā which has purely pleasant and agreeable consequences 45 such violent activities performed by way of duty (punishment) are accepted for lay life. Buddhism considers danda or punishment as ‘unattached violence'. The crime includes both punishment of criminals and waging a righteous war.
A Bodhisattva can kill a person who intends to murder a monk or his own parents : it does not matter if I suffer in purgatory for this sin, but I must save this misguided creature from such a fate.46 Harsh speech is sometimes permissible to a Bodhisattva : he may speak harshly in order to retain foolish persons from evil actions.47
While Buddhism is more liberal in its understanding of himsā Jainism condemns even Euthanasia or mercy-killing. Puruşārthasiddhyupāya warns against wielding a weapon in the false belief that those living in great pain ought quickly to be released from their misery. Even those who are suffering should not be killed.48
Generally violence is not justified except as a 'necessary evil' which is done out of sense of live, pity or duty, and this is the most controversial part of the doctrine of Ahimsā: when is violence justified and in what forms and to what extent?49 There can be situations in which the use of violence alone can set the process of transformation in motion. What is important is not to know whether violence is required or not, but to know whether violence is necessary at all and whether it is oriented towards positive, meaningful changes in the social order or whether its objectives tend towards its total destruction.
For instance, to fight against unjust authority, to participate in military of revolutionary violence in order to attain 'social just objectives etc. cannot be condemned, because to refuse to take a gun is to stand by while injustice does its work and the poor die of hunger. It is always the violence of the oppressor that prompts the counter violence of the oppressed. In most cases it is violence that assures the defence of the poor; only violence stands in the face of exploitation, coercion and oppression by the rich and their governments.
45. Ācārangasūtra, ibid. 1.4.2.6. 46. Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., London, 1932, p. 208. 47. ibid, p. 202. 48. Puruşārthasiddhyupāya, ibid. 85. 49. Ahimsā Voice. Jan. 1990, p. 33.
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