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Jáina Community
and property against assailants and enemies. Samkalpi Himsa is that which is committed intentionally or knowingly, for example, hunting, offering sacrifices, killing for food, amusement or decoration, etc. One who has renounced the life of a householder certainly avoids all four kinds of Himsa. It is significant to note that it is enjoined upon a householder to abstain from Samkalpi Himsa or intentional injury and not from the accidental, occupational and protective Himsa as it is not possible to do so while living in the householder's stage. However, a householder has been advised to try his best to avoid as far as possible the first three kinds of injury as well and a householder has to make a steady progress in such an endeavour. Thus a householder's vow of Ahimsa means abstention from intentional hurting and it can be easily put into practice.8%
The last significant fact about Jaina ethics is the prescription of one ethical code to all people irrespective of their position and stage in life. The rules of conduct are exactly the same both for laymen and ascetics with the only obvious difference that while the former observe them partially the latter have to observe them strictly. The ascetic life is thus a continuation of householder's life and this has fostered intimate relationship between the two main divisions of the Jaina community. As the ascetics are not generally recruited directly from outside but are taken from the Sravakas or householders, a feeling of oneness is created so far as the spiritual enterprise of the people is concerned. Since spiritual upliftment was the main aim of people, common practices in spiritual enterprise brought the laymen and monks together and this was the prime factor in the survival of Jainism as compared with other religions. It cannot be doubted that this close union between the laymen and monks brought about by the similarity of their religious duties, differing not in kind, but in degree, has enabled Jainism to avoid fundamental changes within, and to resist dangers from without for more than two thousand years, while Buddhism, being less exacting as regards the laymen, underwent the most extraordinary evolutions and finally disappeared in the country of its origin.87 Thus the ethical code was in a way responsible for the continuity of Jaina community in India for such a long time inspite of oppositions from other faiths.
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A Social Survey
