Jaina Path of Ahimsa

Author(s): Vilas Sangve
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir Research Centre

Page 54

Comprehensiveness Of Ahiṁsā
that which in the minds of other persons, creates feelings of uneasiness, fear, pain, hostility, grief, etc.
Thus, the Pramatta-yoga, i.e., the vibrations due to the passions which agitate mind, speech or body, is invariably present in all these four kinds of falsehood. Hence, Hiṁsā is certainly involved in falsehood because Pramatta-yoga is the cause of Himsā.
(ii) Ahimsa and Achaurya :
Like Satya, Achaurya, i.e, not committing theft, is also Ahinisā, i.e, non-injury, because every theft includes Hiṁsā just as every kind of falsehood includes Hiṁsā. According to the Jaina scriptures, "the taking, by Pramatta-yoga, of things without they being given by the owner, is to be deemed as theft and that is invariably Himsā because it is the cause of injury.” It is obvious that the person who thinks of stealing, injures the purity of his own soul, suffers pain of punishment if detected and causes pain to the others whom he deprives them of their things. Again, in this world all transient things (or forms of property) constitute the external Prānas, i.e, vitalities of a man. Hence, depriving a person of his property is tantamount to depriving that person of his Prānas and this is nothing but Hiṁsā.
Thus all theft includes Himsā. In fact there is no exclusivity between Hiņsā and theft and it can very well be maintained that Hiṁsā is certainly included in theft, because in taking what belongs to others, there is the presence of Pramatta yoga, which is we cause of Himsā.
(iii) Ahimsā and Brahmacharya :
In the same strain as Satya and Achaurya, the Brahmacharya is also considered as Ahirsā, because Abramha is a kind of Hissā. The term Abramha refers to the copulation arising from sexual passion and this act is Hirnsā in two ways. In the first place, many living beings are deprived of their vitalities in the vagina in the sexual act, just as a hot rod of iron, when it is introduced in a tube filled with sesamum seeds, burns them up. Secondly, psychical life is affected because of the emergence of a sexual passion, and so also the material Prāņas, i.e, vitalities, are affected owing to the lethargic condition consequent upon copulation.
Obviously, unchastity is a form of Hirsā and as such persons are advised to give up their sex-desire altogether. But it is possible only for the ascetics to do so. Therefore, it is enjoined upon a householder to observe the vow of Brahmacharya to a limited extent by total abstinence