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and pure form of religion In Jainism non-violence is the pivot on which its whole cthics revolves In other words, violence represents all the vices and non-violence represents all the virtucs Non-violence is not a single virtuc, but it is a group of virtues In thc Prasnavyakarana-sutra the term non-violence is cquated with sixty virtuous qualitics, namcly peace, harmony, welfarc, trust, fearlessness, ctc Thus non-violence is a wider term which comprchends all the good qualities and virtues
The concept of non-violence and the regard for life is accepted by almost all the religions of the world But none of the religions observes it so minutely as Jainism Jainism prohibits not only killing of human beings and animals but also killing of the vegetable life To hurt the plants is also an act of violence or Himsa Its basic principlc is that the life, in whatever form it may be, should be respected, we have no right to take another's life, because every one wants to live as he do The Dasavaikalıka mentions that cvery onc wants to live and not to die, for this simple reason, Nigganthas prohibit violcncc It can be said that the Jaina concept of non-violence is not practical, even than we cannot challenge its relevance for human society Though Jainism sets its goal as the ideal of total nonviolence, external as well as internal, yet the realisation of this ideal in the practical life is by no means casy. Non-violence is a spiritual ideal, which is fully realisable only on the spiritual plane The real life of an individual is a physiospiritual complex, at this levelcomplete non-violence is not possible A person can proceed towards the fullness of non-violent life only when he rises above the physical level
All the human beings have an equal right to Icad an peaccful life Though violence is unavoidable, yet it can not be the directive principle of our living, because it gocs against the judgements of our faculty of reasoning and the concept of natural law If I think that nobody has any right to take my life then on the ground of the same reasoning I also have no right to take another's life The principle of equality propounds that every one has a right to live The directive principle of living is not 'Living on others' or Living by killing', but 'Living with others' or 'Living for others'
Though in our world complete non-violence is not possible, yet our motto should be 'Lesser killing is better Living'
Further we must be aware of the fact that in Jainism non-violence is not merely a negative concept ie not to kill, but it has a positive side also, as service to mankind Once a question was raised to Mahavira, 'O' Lord, one person is rendering his services to the needy persons, while the other is offering puja to you, among these two, who is the real follower of yours Mahavira answered “First one is the real follower of mine, because he is following my teachings"
Though some or other forms of violence is inevitable in our life, yet on this basis we can not conclude that the non-violence is not necessary at all Just as violence is inevitable for living, non-violence is also inevitable for social living
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