Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

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

Page 52

Padmnabh S. Jaini, 'Ahimsa and the Question of "Just War”
religious discipline.13 It forbids the taking of all life, however, that might be justified or excused in other religions and warns that nothing short of hell or animal rebirth awaits those who kill or who die while entertaining thoughts of violence. Killing, even in self defence or for the “right cause" would lead to rebirth in hell. For example, in the Jaina Rāmāyaṇa, the "good brother” Laxamana goes to the very same hell as does the wicked Rāvana, whom he “justifiably” destroyed in an heroic manner.!
Jaina commitment to ahimsă and a desire for a peaceful world may be measured by the following lines from the religion's most solemn prayer which every Jaina hopes to uphold while breathing his or her last moments of life:
khāmemi savva-jīve, savve jīvā khamantu mel metti me savva-bhữesu, veram majjha na keņavi//1s (I ask pardon of all creatures, may all of them pardon me. May I have friendship with all beings and enmity with none.)*
This perspective, however, does allow the Jaina to sacrifice his own life in order to guard and nurture his soul. This is technically known as sallekhana, literally meaning "thinning one's own body and passions.” The basic justification for sallekhana is that a person who has conscientiously led a holy life has earned the right to die in peace in full possession of his faculties, without any attachment, including attachment to his own body. In this way, the soul may remain unaffected by the injuries (himsā) inflicted upon it by attachment and aversion and may meet its corporeal death in perfect peace with itself and the world. For further discussion about sallekhanā, see P. S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification, op. cit., pp. 227-233.
14 Ibid., p.314, fn 62
10 Quoted from Pratikramana sutra, 49, in R. Williams, Jaina Yoga (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), p. 207.
*The above is excerpted from "Ahimsa: A Jaina Way of Spiritual Discipline," published in Collected Papers on Jaina Studies by P.S. Jaini (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000).
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