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Ahimsa & Jainism
Atul Doshi
Ahimsa and Jainism are two sides of one coin. The whole essence of Jainism is in Ahimsa. However, Ahimsa should not be construed as 'religious' matter. It's a foundation of Humanity. All religion advocates 'compassion to all beings'. It seems Jainism has given more importance and very direct reference to Ahimsa.
Lord Mahavira gave five commandments/vratsTruth, Ahimsa, Non-attachment/Non-possession, Celibacy/Chastity and Non-stealing. But, he said, 'Ahimsa Parmo Dharma'(Ahimsa is the supreme religion). Why did he say so? Because, ahimsa is the only medicine which can cure all problems of any society or any nation. As a human being we need to have lots of virtues or good sanskar like love, patience,
calmness, honesty, generous, etc... but without
Ahimsa, all these virtues will not have desired impact
on society to achieve peace and harmony for all.
Today, in Jain community, Ahimsa is misunderstood as only 'jivdaya (compassion towards animals)'. Even, jivdaya is also restricted as mainly helping animal shelter houses' (panjrapole) or saving some animals from going to slaughter houses.
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In this era of India becoming number one exporter of beef, Jains need to introspect and change the way they think about Jivdaya. They need to analyse reasons for increase in number of animals slaughtered in India and world over. Gone are the days when animals were limited in numbers, milk was not a business and animals were family members. Today, animals are treated as 'machine' and animal breeding is an 'industry'. There is no doubt that meat-milk and leather are three businesses which are growing on support of each other. Jains need to understand harsh reality and drastically cut down on usage of dairy products and stop use of leather.
What can be the reasons for Jains not able to accept reality and go to the roof of the problem? There can be few reasons for not doing this
What is Ahimsa ? It is a very vast word and difficult to define it in an exhaustive manner. However, it can simply be described as 'we all need to accept the⚫ fact that there are other humans and other living beings who also wants to live, who also feels pains like we feel, who also wants happiness'. Live and let live. To follow principle of minimal harm and principle of 'inter dependence".
Excessively relying on 'ancient Jain Books' which does not depict current scenario
⚫ To follow how Jain tirthankars acted in certain manner at that point of time.
Jains are giving too much importance to 'rituals' and not ready to travel 'within (innerself)' To follow what Jain Munis ask them to do.
To pursue 'moksh/swarg/next birth' and ignoring life in current form
What should be done to educate jains on true meaning of Ahimsa ?
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To create awareness by doing seminars presentation and give them true picture of whats happening around the world
To meet Jain Munis and explain them. If they realize the truth then they will be able to take it to people.
To meet young Jains. It will be easy for them to understand and accept truth. This will prepare nextgen to live an Ahimsak Life Style
Jains need to wake up and again be the torch
bearer to spread light of Ahimsa in this world.
M: 9821127475
શ્રી મુંબઈ જૈન યુવક સંઘ એડ્રેસ લીસ્ટ અપડેટ કરી રહ્યા હોવાથી, વાચકોને વિનંતી છે કે આપનું નામ, નંબર, અને ગ્રાહક નંબર અમને જાણ કરશો. જેથી અમે આપના સંપર્કમાં આવી શકીએ. આપ અમને અમારા નવા મોબાઈલ પર મેસેજ અથવા ફોન કરીને તમારી વિગત જાણ કરી શકો છો.
મો. નં. ૯૧૩૭૭૨૭૧૦૯
પ્રબુદ્ધ જીવન
સપ્ટેમ્બર- ૨૦૧૮
