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must not prematurely kill the animal. If so, then the perpetrator of the killing will thicken and darken his or her karma, as stated above, and the killed animal would necessarily have to endure an eventually torturous further life to finish the atonement process.
Conclusion
We have surveyed various aspects of the relationship between humans and animals in the Jain religious tradition. Jainism proclaims a biological and psychological continuity between not only the animal and human realm, but sees insects, microorganisms, and life dwelling in the elements as part of the same continuum. The Jain tradition developed a code of ethics that requires its adherents to avoid violence to all these life forms to the degree possible depending upon one's circumstances. All Jains are expected to abstain from animal flesh. Jain laypeople are expected to avoid professions that harm animals directly or indirectly. Jain monks and nuns strive to minimize violence to even one-sensed beings and take vows to not brush against greenery or drink unfiltered water or light or extinguish fires. Perhaps more than any other religion in human history, the Jain faith seeks to uphold and respect animals as fundamentally and really not different from ourselves.
But at the same time, Jainism, with few exceptions, avoids sentimentalizing animals. Ultimately, the reason one respects animals is not for the sake of the animal, but for the purpose of lightening the karmic burden that obscures the splendor of one's own soul. Seen positively, every act of kindness toward an animal releases a bit of karma. But the approach is more on the lines of a via negativa: by avoiding a potentially damaging entanglement with an animal, one can ward off a potential blot on one's core being.
In conclusion, Jainism sees animals as former or potential human beings, paying for past sins yet capable of self-redemption. Human birth is considered to be the highest birth, as it is the only realm through which might enter final liberation or kevala. However, the best possible human life, that is, a life directed toward the highest spiritual ideal, takes the protection of animal life very seriously. The Acaranga Sutra (1.5.5) states that as soon as we intend to hurt or kill something, we ultimately do harm to ourselves by deepening and thickening the bonds of karma. According to Jainism, the best life pays attention to animals, not in a sentimental way, but in a way that gives them the freedom to pursue their own path, to fulfil their self-made destinies, and perhaps enter themselves into the path of virtue.
Christopher Key Chapple, PhD, is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on Asian religions and comparative ethics. He has published numerous articles and several books, including Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), which includes a rather extensive discussion of Jainism. In 1998 he convened a conference on Jainism and Ecology at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions.
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