Jaina Gazette 1928

Author(s): Ajitprasad, C S Mallinath
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office

Page 23

10
THE JAINA GAZETTE
it, so that the vermin might have nourishment !" I can only say as to this that it is a malicious libel propounded or repeated by A. S. P., quite gratuitously. It is contrary to the Jaina rule to cause pain to one living being to placate or provide nourishment for another. There is no question of buying off the consent of the victim either. Pain is pain and the causing of it cannot be justified under any circumstances under the Jaina doctrine. No true Sravaka will ever act in the way as the devout Jainas are said to have done by A. S. P. If there be a story like that current in some cheap literature which he has read, that must be the outcome of the lively imagination of an easy-going 'penny-a-liner.' I should have thought that a responsible writer would never seek to make capital out of a wretched yarn like that at any time, even though hard put to it to find something funny to say to his readers.
A. S. P., is really amusing when he says that in Hinduism escape from re-birth was open only to the Brahmans. What about Janak who was a Kshatriya, and the innumerable other Kshatriyas? If the Upanisads are to be believed some of these illustrious Kshatriyas were noted for their jnana and many a Brahman wended his way to their courts to learn wisdom divine from them!
We next have the accusation that Jainism encourages suicide. If A. S. P. had only read what is written in bold letters and clear language in one of the Jaina Shastras on the subject, he would have found ample food for reflection there. This is how the passage (rendered in English) runs :
“ Bhaktapratyakhyana marana is not proper for him who has many years of saintly life before him, who has no fear of starvation from a great famine, who is not afflicted by an incurable disease, and who is not faced by any sudden cause of death. Whoever desires to put an end to his life while still able, with his body, to observe the rules of the dharma and of the order properly he falls from the true path!” (See the Bhagwati Aradhana).
There is no question here of a recommendation to commit suicide or of putting an end to one's life at one's sweet will and Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat