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Jaina Path of Purification (Liberation)
119
(2) following professions which produce those things.
Not only that one should not follow or urge others to follow professions wherein violence on a large scale is possibly involved (as for example, manufacturing cloth with the use of machines in mills) but also that one should not use things produced through them, if one wants to remain undefiled by the defect of large scale violence. A man deceives himself if he believes that as he himself does not follow or urge others to follow those professions, he is not defiled by the defect of large scale violence, though he uses things produced through those professions involving large scale violence. Nobody will be convinced by his argument if a meat-eater argues that the animals whose meat he eats are not killed by him nor does he urge others to kill them, therefore the defect of killing animals does not defile him. To strengthen his argument he may further say that if the meat were to contain minute living organisms, the defect of killing them may defile him, but the defect of killing animals will certainly not defile him; and if the meat were to contain no minute living organisms, the defect of killing them will also not defile him. This way of supporting or strengthening his argument is also of no avail. He surely incurs the sin of killing animals. Acārya Hemacandra declares that one who kills an animal is no doubt its killer, but that those who give permission to kill it and those who sell, buy, cook, serve or eat its meat are also its killers. To support this declaration he further states that when there is the eater of meat, there is the killer of an animal but that in the absence of the meat-eater, there is the absence of the animal-killer too?; therefore, the real killer is the meat-eater. Acārya Hemacandra's words are noteworthy.
If I want to wear clothes manufactured in mills, to enjoy the things of leather which is obtained after killing animals, to use clothes and things made of silk which is produced after having killed the four-sensed silk
1. hantā palasya vikretā saņskartā bhakşakas tathā /
kretā'numantā dāta ca ghātakā eva yan Manuḥ 1|--Yogaśāstra, III. 20 The verse from Manusmyti, which Acarya Hemacandra has before him is as follows: anuyamtā visasitā nihamtā krayavikrayi / saņskartā sopahartă ca khadakaś ceti ghatakaḥ// One who indirectly gives permission to kill animals, one who severs limbs from the body, one who actually kills the animal, one who sells meat, one who cooks meat, one who serves meat at the table and one who eats it are all considered killers of
the animal. 2. na vadhako bhakşakam vină /-Yogaśāstra, III. 23
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