Jainism Some Essays

Author(s): A S Gopani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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Jainism
not. It has been pointed out earlier that what is struck by a weapon is not possessed of a soul. There will not be injury simply because the world is crowded with souls. It is the intention that ultimately matters. from the real point of view, a man does not become a 'killer' only because he has killed or because the world is crowded with souls, or remain innocent only because he has not killed physically, or because souls are sparse. Even if a person does not actually kill, he becomes a killer if he has the intention to kill; while a doctor has to cause pain, but is still noninjurious, innocent, because his intention is pure. A wise man equipped with the five samitis and the three guptis and practising restraint thereby, is non-injurious, not one who is of just opposite type such a man of restraint is not regarded as injurious irrespective of whether he kills or hurts or does not; for it is the intention that is the deciding factor, not the external act which is inconclusive. From the real point of view it is the evil intention that is hiṁsā (injury) whether it materialises into an evil act of injuring or not. There can be non-injury even when the external act of injury has been committed and injury even when it has not been committed. (2217-2222).
Does this mean that the external act of killing is never injury ? Much depends on the evil intention. That external act of killing which is the cause of an evil effect, or is caused by evil intention is hiṁsā (injury). But that which is not caused by evil intentions or does not result in an evil effect is not himsā in the case of the above-mentioned wise man. For example, sounds, etc. do not rouse the passions of a man free from attraction and infactuation because his mind or intention is pure, undefiled. A good man does not have infatuation for his mother however beautiful she may be; similarly, the external act of injury is not himsā in the case of a man of a pure mind. Thus that the world is crowded with souls does not mean that there is himsā at every stcp.
In order to inclucate this theory into practice the Jaina Ācāryas developed the theory of Karma and produced the story literature to show the results of virtuous and sinful life. And we can observe the penetration of this Karma-theory in the life of the mass of India. Even in Jain Canonical literature we find that as a result of the participation in war many persons are said to be born in hell and such other lower places. (Bhagavati. 7.9.300)
The theory that those who participate in the war are born in heaven is also repudiated in the canon. One can be born in heaven, only if he has regrets for participation in the war and becomes a monk in his last days, otherwise the hell is destined for such person. This is illustrated by the account of the life of one named Varua of Vaisali.
(Bhagavati 7.9.303).