Book Title: Jainism Author(s): Annie Besant Publisher: Theosophical Publishing HousePage 35
________________ 20 JAINISM limited extent. To take a single instance: the vow of Brahmacharya, that on the Yati imposes of course absolute celibacy, in the layman means only temperance and proper chastity in the life of a Grihastha. In this way the vows, we may say, run side by side, of Ahimsă, harmlessness, Sūnriti, truthfulness, Asteya, not taking that which is not one's own, uprightness, honesty, Brahmacharya, and finally Aparigraha, not grasping at anything, absence of greed — in the case of the layman meaning that he is not to be covetous, or full of desire; in the case of the Yati meaning of course that he renounces everything and knows nothing as 'mine,' 'my own'. These five vows, rule the life of the Jaina. Very, very marked is his translation of the word Ahimsa, harmlessness: 'thou shalt not kill. So far does he carry it in his life, to such an extreme, that it passes sometimes almost beyond the bounds of virtue; passes, a harsh critic might say, into absurdity; but I am not willing so to say, but rather to see in it the protest against the carelessness towards animal life and animal suffering, which is but too widely spread among men; a protest, IPage Navigation
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