Jainthology

Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 98

After this rapid survey of conditions generally preceding, contemporaneous with and following the rise of Parsva-Mahăvira-Buddha's teachings on non-killing of and non-injury to animal life, I should like to pose this question, viz., how did this Ahimsă cult come into being, historically noticeable for the first time in Pärsva's Vow, when there appear to be no earlier roots for it in history or in tradition (I overlook for the moment the claim of the Jainas that their Tirthankaras had preached all their Doctrines in the hoary past) ? Later Vedic literature is aware of the need of practising Ahimsā; Upanisadic thought and speculations (to be dated roughly as not being much older in origin than Mahavira and Buddha in all probability) and the Gitā (compiled not earlier probably than circa 2nd century B.C.) preach it no doubt, but nowhere does the doctrine find such prominence, importance and elaborate development as in Jaina teachings. That Pārsva-MahāviraBuddha and the Vedic Brāhmaṇa-Āran yaka thoughts (born of the mingling of pre. Aryan priestly theological speculations and Vedic priestly practices) culminating in the Upanişads shared a common religio-theosophical atmosphere and socio-moral background is not to be disputed, but that does not apear to offer a fully satisfactory explanation of how the doctrine of Ahimsā came to play such a major role in Jaina thought as it did not do in that of any other of its Brahmanical contemporaries, In the absence of clearly established data, we have to have recourse to some extent to speculation with regard to probabilities.
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Associated closely with Pārsva and Mabavira's teaching on Ahimsă are to be found the teachings of rigorous asceticism, penances and mortification of the flesh; the all-importance of the individual soul, speculations op its nature and activities; total independence of all thoughts about an all-soul or a supreme deity, or of the need for propitiating it or seeking its favours or grace for the individual soul's spiritual upliftment or emancipation ; the individual soul's bondage in mundane existence and its own efforts for liberation from it, etc. Consider further the tremendous emphasis Jaina thought placed on ethical conduct as determining everything good in our lives and as leading to the soul's attainment of Moksa ; as also the doctrine of Karma - "good or bad as you sow, exactly so do you reap"- as its inseparable counterpart, another item of religious life that finds the most farreaching elaboration in Jainism.
How surprisingly do these features contrast with Vedic Brahmanical
JAINTHOLOGY, 69