________________
224
Jaina Acara : Siddhanta aura Svarūpa
supreme Yogi. Gifted with such vision he is ready to help others even at the cost of his own life.
“Ahimsa' terminologically has a negative form. It negates violence, gross and subtle both. It negates what man has made of man. It negates manipulation, exploitation, victimisation and dehumanisation.It negates living tainted with selfishness and unmindful of others' weal. Non-violence is not only negative but also positive in enforcing discipline, purity, tranquillity and friendliness extended to all alike.
Negligence generates passions which defile the soul. Whether you succeed in harming others or not, undoubtedly you harm yourself. Amrtacandra says that physical and mental hurt is violence. Umāsvati holds that to take the life of some person out of spite or in a casual manner is violence. It is 'Dravyahimsā, i.e. when the hurt is physical in the form of teasing, beating, even torturing to death. Bhāvahimsā is all mental as when you are inimical to others, when your emotions are in turmoil, when you are agitated, when you are subject to passion and when you think of nothing else but of self-aggrandisement.
Violence may take four forms as follows :(1) Mental violence, but not physical. (2) Physical violence but not mental. (3) Both physical and mental violence. (4) Neither of the two violences.
In the first form if the opponent be more powerful or if circumstances be unfavourable, there can only be mental violence. Mahātamā Gāndhi had termed incivility and want of culture as violence. In the second form the mind is unpolluted but even movement involves partial physical violence. Acāryas have said that innumerable insects die as you wink your eyes. During a surgical operation if the patient dies, there may be physical violence, but not the mental one, since the surgeon did everything with the best of intentions. In the third form mental and physical violence go together as when you think of murdering a person and you actually kill him.
In the fourth type (which is the fourteenth stage of spiritual development) the mind and body are in pious harmony.
Jinadāsagani says "The sin committed by body, mind and speech is violence". Upāsakadasāniga holds the same view. Acāranga forbids the killing of six types of existence. In killing one-sensed beings there is little of passion since it is not intentional. But in killing five-sensed beings there is inevitably too much of passion. Lord Mahavira has forbidden the forcible capture of persons and animals. The stress is or not hurting or injuring them, Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
