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112
Jaina Ethics
every list. These lists also show that Jaina Acaryas were particular about non-violence not only towards fellow human beings but towards small insects and animals also.
Dietic prohibition :
Food is the basic necessity of life. The necessary violence involved in the preparation of food is unavoidable for a house-holder and is considered as arambhi himsā. But violence for food should be restricted within certain limits. Meat, for example, which is obtained by merciless killing of innocent animals, is not allowed for eating in any case. Vegetables and animals are endowed with life alike but it will be wrong to argue that just as we take vegetable life for food, we can also kill animals for food. To use a simile of Asadhara, though both mother and wife are possessed of womanhood, yet only wife is used for gratification of sex and not mother.1 Killing of a five-sensed animal causes hardening of heart and involves much more callousness than is required for preparing food out of vegetables. Not that violence to vegetable life is not a sin but that is lesser of the two evils, and perhaps an unavoidable one, for a householder. Wine is another item which should be avoided by a house-holder. Wine stupefies the mind; the man whose mind is stupefied forgets righteousness; and he who forgets righteousness, commits violence. Moreover, a man who takes wine necessarily commits violence because he destroys many creatures which are generated in liquor. Pride, fear, hatred, ridicule, disgust, grief, passion for sex and anger are concomitants of wine.3
Besides wine and honey, five Udumbaras are also prohibited for food purposes. Even though the living beings in these five fruits may not be present on account of their being dry, their use involves violence in as much as it indicates strong attachment for them. Butter, even though not included in the above list of eight mulagunas, should also be avoided as
1. Sāgāradharmamṛta, 2.10.
2. Puruşarthasidhyupaya, 62.
3. Ibid., 64.
4. Ibid., 73.
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