Jain Journal 2000 04

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

Page 15

SEKHAR : "GIVE AWAY VIOLENCE, PRESERVE LIFE"
171
In Buddhism, 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."48 Harsh speech is sometimes permissible to a Bodhisattva : 'he may speak harshly in order to retain foolish persons from evil actions.49
While Buddhism is more liberal in its understanding of himsā, Jainism holds on to its ideal way. For instance, it condemns Euthanasia or mercy killing. The 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. 50
Generally violence is not justified except as a necessary evil, an evil done out of love, piety, pity or duty, and this is the most controversial part of the doctrine of Ahimsā. Questions are asked as to when violence is justified and in what forms and to what extent.51 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 toward its total destruction.
For instance, to fight against unjust authority, to participate in military or revolutionary violence in order to attain social just objectives,
not condemned. To refuse to take relevant action while injustice does its work and subsequently the poor die of hunger is one way of promoting the unjust system. It is often violence of the oppressor that prompts counter violence of the oppressed. Although debatable, today in practical circumstances, it is violence that assures the defence of the poor and it is violence that stands in the face of exploitation, coercion and oppression by the rich and the powerful. Today people realize that poverty is not a result of fate, but the result of forms of social and economic oppression. Anything that tends to perpetuate poverty or to divert forces that should be devoted to this collective struggle against oppression is treason to the poor. Jacques Ellul says that remaining silent or passive in the face of evil reinforces evil.52
48. Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature,
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., London, 1932, p. 208. 49. Ibid., p. 202. 50. Purusārthasiddhyupāya, ibid., 85. 51. Ahimsā Voice, January 1990, p. 33. 52. Jacques Ellul, ibid., p. 33-34.