Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

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

Page 39

Lessons of Ahimsā and Anekānta for Contemporary Life
activities persist, then a Jaina position would require that a policy of "optimum violence” be adopted so as to reduce the threat posed by the irrational aggressor.
While the Jaina lay population felt the need to occasionally engage in war to defend themselves and their fellow citizens, the monks were totally forbidden from such acts. The Jaina monk is instructed to remain passive even when under attack, to make no effort to fight back or later retaliate-instead to remain calm and detached. Take for instance the following passage from Ācāranga Sūtra which shows a clam and totally nonviolent Mahāvīra under extreme violent circumstances.
In his resting place...crawling or flying animals attacked him; bad people or lance bearers attacked him...foul smells and sounds...always well controlled, he bore the different sorts of
feelings... persevered in his meditations, free from resentment.?! As a living model of total compassion and nonviolence Mahāvīra preached the same to his followers as is clear from the following passages.
As I feel every pain and agony from death down to the pulling of my hair; in the same way, be sure of this, all kinds of living beings feel the same pain and agony... For this reason all sorts of living beings should not be beaten, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor deprived of life.22 All creatures who commit sins will, suffer, and tremble. Considering this, a wise monk who has ceased to sin...should abstain from violence with regard to moveable and immovable beings.
And yet the Jaina lay people cannot follow this total nonviolence. This apparent contradiction between mendicant and lay Jaina approach to terrorism and violence has generated some criticism among scholars. As a postscript to this paper, I wish to
21. Hermann Jacobi (trans.), Jaina Sūtras, op. cit., Part I. viji.2, pp. 83-85.
22. Sūtrakṣitānga II.1.48. See Hermann Jacobi (trans.), Jaina Sütras, Part II., p. 351.
23. Sūtrakritānga I.vii.20. See Hermann Jacobi (trans.), Jaina Sūtras, Part II, p. 295.
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