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Ahimsa In Jainism :
Viewed in Historical Perspective
1
Amulyachandra Sen
Because I am a non-Jaina who happens to be acquainted to some extent with the scriptural teachings of the Jainas, I have sometimes been asked by Jainas who are well-educated but have no specialized knowledge of their own scriptures, what in my view constituted the special merit of Jaina teachings. This enquiry is very natural as we all desire to know how we appear in others' eyes, or what in us impresses others as singling us out from among our confreres. My considered answer to the query has always been this: "the teachings of Ahimsa and the doctrine of Karma". Somewhat to my surprise my interrogators have invariably been left cold and unimpressed, perhaps a little disappointed too, by my reply, the reason for which I failed to guess. At last I found an opportunity of acquainting a well-educated Jaina who is also familiar with the scriptural doctrines of his creed, with my problem, viz., why my reply failed to satisfy his co-religionists and what in the opinion of an average educated Jaina today were the special merits of Jainism? His explanation was very revealing to the average educated Jaina of today, the special excellence of Jainism consisted in the Syadvada (or Anekantavāda or Saptabhangi Naya). Quite true. All who are acquainted with history of Jaina philosophical thought know fully well what enormous labours were devoted by the Jaina thinkers of the past to the development of this system of Logic, so much so that in the eyes of many a schoolman among them Syadvāda came to be regarded as a collective name for all the doctrines of Jainism. To the philosopher, the logician and more particularly to the polemicist, the present-day much-elaborated form of Syadvāda may be the most out
JAINTHOLOGY/61
