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JAIN JOURNAL : VOL-XLII. NO.) JULY 2007
Among the religions of the world, Jainism may hold the most strict thoughts on the respeet for life with the practice of 'ahimsā? (non-killing). Jaina monks and nuns with the mouth-covers (mukhavastra) and the brooms (rajoharani) try not to kill the living beings, even the microbe in the water and in the air, to the utmost limit in their daily lives. However, the absolute ‘ahiṁsā’ is not possible as long as they must sustain their life with food derived from living organisin. Therefore not only the monks and the nuns but the laity sometimes wish to undertake fast unto death and die in the complete equanimity, whose success is regarded as worthy of praise and traditionally called 'vimoha.' This is why non-Jaina people often describe Jainism as a religion of asceticism, although the Jainas are also taught that right knowledge (samvagjñāna) about the true nature of the living and nonliving substances (jīva and ajīva) is said to be the real tapas (penance) because it burns the karınas to ashes.
Here arises more questions about the philosophical reason that some of the Jaina people may challenge to carry the practice of ahiṁsā to extemes. The followings a) ~ b) are two of the factors in Jaina eagerness for the absolute ahimsā:
a) The first factor is based on the intrinsic realization of every living beings (Āyaramga-sutta : Āy., 1.2.3.):
... Knowing birth and death, one should firmly walk the path (i.e. right conduct), (and not wait for old age to commence a religious life).
For there is nothing inaccessible for death. All beings are fond of life, like pleasure, hate pain, shun destruction, like life, long to live. To all life is deart .
2.
“Jainism' must be a paradoxical term, because they never hold any “ism,' but always keep svād-vāda (theory of relativity) and anekānta-vāda (many. faceted understanding of the reality).
3. Mahābhārata: XII. 208.27
4.
F. Max Müller(ed), The Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 22, Delhi, 1964, p. 19.
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