Jain Moral Doctrine

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

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JAIN MORAL DOCTRINE
The Jaina attitude towards these third and fourth acts of violence is similar to that towards the second. These may be necessary and unavoidable in a person living in a society or leading the life of an ordinary house-holder and violence in these cases, although violence in its essentiality, is milder than that in the Sankalpini. The Jainas advise nevertheless that one should always see that violence be avoided in these cases as much as possible and in no case should exceed the minimum demands of life. They point out that it is only by the homeless ascetics that all forms of the Himsā, including the second, the third and the fourth can be avoided.
The Pramatta-yoga or Kaṣāya being thus the sine-qua-non of all forms of the Himsa, it is immaterial whether it manifests itself or not in an outside overt act. Bearing this important principle in mind, one clearly sees (1) that a person may be guilty of violence, even though he has not done any actual act of violence, while another person who has done an act of violence may never the less be untouched by Himsā; (2) that a small number of violent acts of one person may give him a great number of unpleasant consequences while a great number of such acts may be found to yield only a very small number of evil consequences; (3) That there are differences in intensity in the consequences of violence in different persons; (4) That in some cases the consequences of violence is experienced even before the overt act of violence is done; sometimes, it is felt along with the act; sometimes it is felt after the act is done; sometimes again, the consequence of violence is experienced, even though the overt act remains undone; (5) That sometimes, many persons experience the consequence of a violent act done by a single person while sometimes, one single person experiences the consequence of a violent act, done by many jointly; (6) That an act of violence yields to one person the fixed consequence of violence, while to another person, it yields the consequence of a purely non-violent act; (7) That conversely an act of non-violence yields the consequence of non-violence to a person while it yields the consequence of a violent act to another person. It is needless to repeat that the presence or the absence of the passions, the Kaşaya's or the Pramattayoga, that is to say, of an intentional disposition for injury-that accounts for these differences.
The Jainas are believers in the reality of life in vegetables and they insist accordingly on a person's refraining from needless injury to the plant-life They affirm that there is no reason why living animals should be killed or otherwise hurt. They proclaim that it is sinful to kill animals in the name of religion or for the purpose of
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