Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

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

Page 49

Lessons of Ahimsā and Anekānta for Contemporary Life
this vow was asked by a mendicant to set specific limits on his possession of such temporal items as gold and silver, real estate, grain, and furniture, and to vow not to acquire amounts in excess of this limit. He was further encouraged to lower these limits by a certain amount each year in emulation of total non-possession (aparigraha) of the mendicant. In demanding that an advocate of ahiņsā should renounce all properties in excess of one's legitimate needs, the Jainas were showing great insight into the possibility of building a society that practiced minimal himsā. It must still be said, however, that the Jainas lacked either the vision or the organization to translate this precept into a general social philosophy. It is much to the credit of Mahatma Gandhi, who was undoubtedly influenced by several devout Jainas,' that he espoused a philosophy founded upon ahimsa and aparigraha.
A second memorable story appears in the canonical Bhagvati-sūtra, which purports to preserve the words of the last Jaina Tirthankara, Mahāvīra. There Mahāvīra was asked about a war between Konika, the emperor of Magadha during Mahāvīra's time, and a federation of eighteen independent kings that had reportedly left 840,000 men dead. Mahāvīra's disciple specifically wanted to know whether it was true that all those men would be reborn in heaven because they had perished on the battlefield. In answer to this question, Mahāvīra declared that only one man out of this large army was reborn in heaven, and only one reborn as a man, all the rest ended up in hell or in the animal realms.
Contrary to the widely held belief that death on the battlefield is almost equal to holy martyrdom, the Jaina answer as put in the mouth of Mahāvīra shows extraordinary courage of their conviction that death accompanied by hatred and violence can never be salutary and must therefore lead to unwholesome rebirths. Mahāvīra's answer to this question is truly memorable
» See correspondence between Mahatma Gandhi and a revered Jaina saint Srimad Rājacandra as given in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi(Government of India Publications: 1958-75)Vol. 32, pp. 601-602.
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