Jain Moral Doctrine

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

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CARDINAL VIRTUES
is interesting to note that most of these cruel acts have been held to be punishable crimes under the penal laws of a civilized country now a days.
The next Vrata which is essential to a moral life is the vow of truthfulness or Satya. Its opposite, i.e., speaking falsely, is the Ansta—which is defined as telling something which is not factual. It should be noted that the Pramatta-yoga or wicked intention, which, as we have seen, lies at the root of violence and which gives it the character of violence, forms the basis of Anrta or lying also. Nothing is a falsehood, unless it is a deliberate lie and nothing is true, if an improper motive prompts its utterance. It is accordingly said that even if a statement is true but made with the deliberate intention of hurting the hearer's feeling, the statement is deprived of its character of truth. On the contrary, a false statement made for the purpose of doing some good to the hearer cannot be condemned as a downright lie.
The character of a phenomena is determined with reference to its nature (dravya), time (kāla), place (kşetra) and modality (bhāva). A particular cup, for instance, exists only as a thing, made of (say) silver, during (say) winter, at a particular place (say) Calcutta and as (say) a round article and you cannot think of it as constituted of an absolute substance persisting through all eternity, existing simultaneously at all places and possessed of an universal shape. A true statement presents a thing or a phenomenon as it is in respect of its own nature, time, place and modality. So, when a thing actually exists with reference to its own particular nature, modification, time, and location and one says that it does not exist—this is one form of lying; to say that a thing exists, where as a matter of fact it does not exist, is the second manner of lying; to speak about a thing as something which is really different from it, is the third kind of falsehood; the fourth form of lying includes the three following manners of stating a fact viz.—(1) The Garhita or the condemnable. A true statement may be so made with scornful laughter as to give pain to the hearer; it may be clothed in harsh and angry words; its tone may be incivil and its words, unconnected with each other; it may be so delivered as to give rise to mistaken ideas in the hearer; the words used may be ambiguous or meaningless; or they may suggest something which contradicts the eternal verities, as disclosed by the competent masters. All such statements, though embodying true facts are nevertheless Garhita or condemned. (2) The Sāvadya or faulty. Statements e.g. about cutting the limbs of an animal, about piercing it, about beating it, about
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