Jaina Political Thought

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 43

its life, happiness and freedom.5 Killing, inflicting injury and pain, compulsion, all these are modes of himsa and violate the respect living beings of all orders, from the microscopic to the human. The Jaina principle of ahimsa, thus, has a characteristic. and unique comprehensiveness since it prohbits the use of force in any manner against any form of life. In its comprehensiveness the principle is apparently inconsistent with ordinary secular life. The Jainas themselves realized this and held that while the monks ought to seek to realize ahimsa fully, the man of the world or householder could follow it with limitations. It is this limited principle of ahimsa which ought to form the guiding principle of legislation and policy.
To recapitulate, the Jaina conception of freedom is that of spiritual autonomy ideally speaking, which can be fully realized only in the society of perfect saints. It is also an assertion of free will and moral reponsibility for every man. The search for ideal freedom or the moral exercise of free will requires the adoption of two basic rules viz., of selflessness and noninterference. Both the rules follow from the recognition of the spiritual nature of the self and its sameness in all. The monks seek to follow them with limitation. From the same basic principles, thus, the monasti emerges as a purer and more spiritual society while the common worldly society represents for the moral person a limited approximation wherein he has an opportunity of training himself till he is ripe for renouncing the world. The recognition of the moral and practical code of a house-holder constitutes a general principle of guidance for the state. This code of upasaka dharma morally binding on the individuals is simpler and more universal than the Brahmanical codes. It does not seek to prescribe those activities towards which men are inclined by nature, nor does it engage in the task of allocating duties according to class or caste. Again it does not prescribe the obligations which men accept by convention or contract in the pursuit of common activities, whether in the course of mystic life or civil society. It certainly is not a code imposed by the state as law. Yet the upasaka dharma has a moral direction and a concrete practical content which is flexible and capable of development in response to changing and varied situations. It is thus of the highest significance for the moral regneration of society. The present day Anuvrata movement is an example of its power. Jai Prakash Narain had once spoken of the need to move from Raj Niti to Loka Niti, implying that it is a mistake to think of improving society by the action of the state; what is needed is to improve the state as well as society with the initiative of the people. If we think of the people who would revolutionize society as a group of persons dedicated to selflessness and non-violence, we would have in many respects an image
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