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Jainism : The Cosmic Vision they die. To avoid injury to them, as far as possible, man is advised to use them discreetly. He should desist from polluting water, air, etc. thereby perpetrating violence to them. Worms, insects, animals, etc. help in keeping ecological balance thus they help man. And for ages domestic animals have been a constant and faithful aid to man in civilizing himself. From the ultimate standpoint of their original pure pristine state, all living beings are uniform in their nature. Jainism teaches to look upon them as upon one's own self. Inflicting injury to them is inflicting injury to one's ownself.
Jain religion, which puts maximum emphasis on Ahimsa i.e. non-violence, strongly advocates compassion towards animals. Let us first try to understand the approach of the Jain religion towards animals and other living beings. The Jain religion believes that animals, too, have souls and it respects animals, as much as, it shows respect to human beings. Not only that, but it believes that man and animals both possess equal potential to achieve salvation. That is why the dictum of the Jain religion is : gitaret 37449 - "the killing of an animal is equivalent to killing of the ownself."
The sixteenth Tirthankara, Shri Shantinath Bhagwan, set an excellent example of balancing the rights of various animals in the kingdom of nature. Once he was caught in the middle of a dilemma. A pigeon came rushing to him for shelter, trying to save its life from a hawk. The hawk swooped down on the pigeon, to feed herself and her hungry family. What would Shri Shantinath Bhagwan do? If he saves the pigeon, the hawk dies of hunger. If he feeds the hawk, the pigeon dies. He did not
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