Jain Spirit 2002 10 No 12

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 57

Indulgence Is Violence
the practice of fasting as a primary component of their spiritual path. Refraining from food for a period of time is not altogether unknown to the Brahmanical scriptures. The Manusmrti prescribes fasting as a form of expiation for certain transgressions especially by members of the Brahman caste. The Puranic literature is also full of stories like that of Visvamitra whose years of fasting were rendered futile by the caprices of gods jealous of the sage's superior Yogic powers. For the most part, these are legends and are not narrated to persuade the Hindu laity to imitate the sage by similar fasting. In the case of the Jains, however, fasting by their teacher Mahavir seems to have left an indelible mark on their consciousness, making it the most important feature of Jain tapas. This is demonstrated by the fact that a great many Jain laymen and women of all ages undertake fasting on a regular basis and consider it the singular mark by which their community can be distinguished from that of the Brahmanical society. Remarkable still is the most holy Jain practice of salekhana which permits certain advanced Jain mendicants to adopt total fasting as a legitimate way - in fact the only permissible way - of choosing death in the face of a terminal illness.
The Jain emphasis on fasting invites an examination of their attitude to food and the reasons for their belief in the efficacy of fasting as a means of attaining moksha. Probably the Jain doctrine of the material (paudgalika) nature of karma capable of producing impure transformation (vibhava-parinama) of the soul (jiva) is at the root of this belief. It is well known that in Jainism karmic bondage is seen as an
Jain nuns and monks are role models accumulation of an extremely subtle form of floating dust
of simple eating which clings to the soul when the latter is overcome, moistened as it were, by desire and other passions. These desires (present in all souls from
food as the very root of all bondage, beginningless times) in their most subtle
the uprooting of which is essential for form are called samjnas, a term which "A great many Jain the elimination of the other passions. may be tentatively translated as
The Jain texts dealing with the ‘instincts'. The Jain texts enumerate four laymen and women of training of mendicants constantly such samjnas universally found in all
encourage the cultivation of distaste forms of life including the vegetable all ages undertake for food and stipulate a variety of kingdom. Craving for food (ahara
ways of overcoming the desire for samjna) is the most primary of these
flavour (rasa-parityaga). They begin instincts. No other being than the
with the characteristic Jain liberated soul is exempt from it. This
basis.”
declaration that the desire for food is desire for food sets up competition
the prime cause for all forms of himsa between one living being and another
since food cannot be consumed which gives rise to the second instinct, namely that of fear without destroying another life form. Because life cannot (bhaya-samjna). The consumption of food sets the third and be maintained without consuming some amount of food, the probably the most virulent of the instincts in motion, the desire Jain teachers have devised various means of minimising this for sex (maithuna-samina), the gratification of which himsa for their mendicants who have assumed the vow produces further desire for food. This, in turn, produces a of total non-violence (ahimsa-mahavrata). In the Jain craving to accumulate things for future use, the instinct called classification of beings, souls endowed with all five senses parigraha-samina, which invariably goads the soul towards (pancendriyajiva) occupy the highest position, while the volitional harmful acts (himsa) inspired by attachment (raga) vegetable life, endowed with only one sense, namely that of and aversion (dvesa). The Jains therefore see the craving for touch is placed at the bottom of the list. Beings with two or
fasting on a regular
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