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Jaina Path of Purification (Liberation)
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propound and preach that these external rites, rituals and ceremonies are all in all and in connection with them raise quarrels or disputes and divide the society, certainly deviate from the true path of religion. They should think as to how peace and amiability prevail in the entire society and strive for them. They should have their soothing and purifying in fluence on the society. Even their philosophical discussions should be full of sympathy and gentleness and permeated with synthetic and synoptic outlook so that they may not cause any unrest, disturbance or quarrel in the society.
Layman's Conduct Now we treat of the layman's conduct. The first good quality he should cultivate is that of honesty. He should be honest, straightforward and just in his dealings with others. His activities should be governed by the proper standard of honesty, integrity and truthfulness. At this juncture it is necessary to discuss some specific points about his conduct.
About Non-violence
The first point relates to non-violence. We cannot but do harm and violence to living beings for the sustenance of our body. We cannot live without killing living beings. Even our breathing involves violence. But we should do only that much harm or violence which is absolutely necessary for the sustenance of our body. Instead of making it a rule of our life to do violence to living beings, we should make sincere efforts to find out how we can live with minimum violence, how we can decrease violence as far as possible.
As far as possible one should save the developed living beings (that is, those on the higher scale of evolution and hence having more senseorgans) and kill the undeveloped ones, if it is inevitable to kill living beings for sustaining one's body. Again, one should live in such a manner that killing of even the undeveloped living beings be as minimum as possible. This is the teaching promulgated by the saints. It is from this standpoint that meat-eating, hunting, massacre and killing are forbidden.
Is it bravery to yield to the passion of anger and fury and to enter into fight with one's adversary? Bravery consists in non-violence, that is, in restraining mind from being under the sway of anger and cruelty; it consists in keeping mind cool and calm by using the internal wholesome strength of discretion. The just mentioned mental or spiritual strength
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