________________
102
JAINISM AND WORLD PROBLEMS
involved in such domestic requirements as sweeping, lighting a fire, cooking, grinding and the like.
The Saint is able to rise higher in regard to Universal Love than the layman. He has still to take his food, but he does not cook and grind, and thus escapes from the himsa involved in the householder's domestic pursuits. He will not eat any whole fruit to avoid eating living matter ; but he will eat fresh fruit if someone gives it to him already cut in slices ; but even this must be rejected if specially prepared for him ; for otherwise he will become a participator in the sin to a great extent. The Saint also avoids the hiinsa implied in self-defence, in the maintenance of Law and Order, in the treatment of disease and for the employment of inen and animals for transport or trade. He further tries to control his movements, adopting extreme carefulness as his guide, and thus escapes from the himsa that comes under the head of careless action from which the house-holder may not easily escape. The Saint also observes many fasts, and very often he only eats from just one dish, so that he abstains at the tiine from all forms of himsa except the one involved in the eating of just that one thing. As Sainthood merges into deification, the aspirant refrains from food altogether, and is probably able to maintain Himself on the forces which His body directly absorbs from the atmosphere.
Pure bodiless Souls that have attained to the Perfection of Spiritual nature neither need nor take any food, and are altogether rid of the necessity to commit acts of himsa. They escape from all the 108 forms of himsa in which the unemancipated souls are involved. These 108 forms are to be understood in this way : himsa is committed under the influence of anger, pride, deceit or greed, which are the four principal passions. It is committed with the mind or with word or with the body, that is, with a bodily act. It is com. mitted alike in intention, in the preparation for an act, or in the actual commission of the act itself. It is, again, of three
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
