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Compassion Towards Animals want either of them to suffer. So he found a solution by offering the sacrifice of his own flesh to the hawk, so neither hawk nor the pigeon would have to die. Jainism opened a line of thought which will have to grapple with such tricky problems.
The Jain religion prescribes a religious ritual called Pratikraman. As a part of this ritual, one has to seek forebearance or pardon for all the sins one may have committed. Among the daily rituals that every Jain man and woman has to practice or observe, one of them also includes the vow to avoid confining animals in cages, harming them with weapons, cutting down or piercing the parts of their body, inflincting unbearable physical burden on them and depriving them of food and water. Similarly, the first and the foremost of the vows of the Jain religion called Anuvrata and Mahavrata includes compassion towards all living beings, including animals. This is followed by the exhortation to show kindness and pity to animals and not to practice any type of cruelty towards them. The Jains consider this to be the true religion. The Jain scripture Bodhpahud states that true religion exists only where mercy towards all is practised.
This is distinctly noticeable in the life of the 23rd Tirthankara Neminath. While he was on way going to marry a beautiful woman called Rajimati, he heard the shricks of cattle which were confined in cattle-enclosure. He enquired from the chariot driver as so why so many cattle have been confined in the enclosure. The chariot driver told Neminath that they are to be slaughtered for the feast that has been organised to celebrate your wedding. This shocked Neminath who never
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