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PURUSHARTHA-SIDDHYUPAYA
fun of the big men who level their guns at him from a safe distance and take pleasure in watching his death agonies. The rare case of a person going out to kill a man-eating tiger now requires to be discussed. In his case also, it may safely be said that the feelings which actuate him are the hope of a reward, praise, renown, the expectation of being called a bold man, and excitement of sport, rather than the pure desire of saving his fellow men. The argument is, in fact, an apology and an excuse.
To proceed further.
You cannot make some happy by destroying others. The feelings of enmity, hostility, and revenge are the cause of pain and misery, dread and fear. It has been known that serpents and tigers have approached and gone past the saintly ascetics who, wrapped up in their meditations had in them no fear of, and no hostility towards them. The serpent or the tiger attacks man, not because, as is wrongly supposed, it is his nature to do so, but because it apprehends harm from man and strikes in self-defence. If man, the most intelligent of all creatures, himself cast aside all fear and looked at a serpent or a tiger fearlessly, eye to eye, it would simply be magnetised or hypnotised, would obey his will and never think of injuring him. This is the scientific explanation of the miraculous fact that
raculous fact that tigers and serpents, bears and scorpions, crawled at the blessed feet of the Munis and Rishis of yore. बहुसत्वघातिनोऽमी जीवन्त उपार्जयन्ति गुरु पापम् । इत्यनुकम्पां कृत्वा न हिंसनीयाः शरीरिणो हिंस्राः॥८४॥
84. “These kill many lives, and accumulate grave sin”
Doing this act of mercy, those who injure others should not be killed.
Commentary.
This is also a fallacious argument. Killing does not mean an extinction of life for ever. The only way to stop the accretion of bad karmas is by self-restraint. Loss of life is only a loss of the opportunities for spiritual advancement. By killing such living beings, you incur sin, and retard the spiritual progress of your self and of those whom you kill.
बहदुःखाः संज्ञपिताः प्रयान्ति त्वचिरेण दुःखविच्छित्तिम् । इति वासनाकृपाणीमादाय न दुःखिनोऽपि हन्तव्याः॥८॥
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