Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 10

Tara Sethia, "Introduction"
called a way of personal discipline.") Drawing upon scholarly works on Jainism as well as the current practices of the Jain community, Kristi Wiley discusses the inter-connectedness of the related concepts of ahiņsā, compassion and samyaktva in Jainism. Wiley suggests that Jain view of ahimsā is based on the proper view of reality (samyag darśana) which regards any kind of violence to other living beings as violence to self and, therefore, injurious to one's spiritual progress and pursuit of mokșa. Nonetheless, the rational expression of this principle, she points out, also results in compassion or "social fellow feeling.” Such compassion has prompted the Jains to speak in favor of vegetarianism, and against certain practices including animal sacrifice and Vedic rituals.
How can Jainism with its commitment to ahimsă, help one to respond to acts of terrorism and defend oneself and fellow beings from acts of violence and aggression? Is there a justification for war in Jainism? According to John Cort, “while there is a Jain theory of just war, we certainly see no Jain equivalent to a theory of a holy war.994 However, as Nathmal Tatia has pointed out, 'for Umāsvāti, the author of Tattvartha Sūtra, 'nonviolence is unlimited, tolerance unconditional, and reverence for life supreme. There is no question of “just war.”"S Both Kim Skoog and Padmanabh S. Jaini address this and related issues in their papers.
Kim Skoog formulates a Jain response to terrorism based on Jain philosophy and principles. Although there is no theory of "just war” in Jainism, he contends that the Jain discussion of war comes close to it. The lay Jains who may participate in the war must do so only as a last resort, must be aware of its harmful
Padmanabh S. Jaini, “Ahimsā: A Jaina Way of Spiritual Discipline," in Jaini (ed.) Collected Papers on Jaina Studies (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000), pp. 3-19.
See John Cort, “Intellectual Ahimsa" Revisited: Jain Tolerance and Intolerance of Others, Philosophy East and West (Vol. 50, No. 3 July 2000): 324-347, p. 337.
5 "Translator's Introduction" to Umásváti's Tattvārtha Sūtra in Nathmal Tatia (ed.) That Which Is (San Francisco and London: Harper Collins, 1994), p. xxi.
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