Pushkarmuni Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Devendramuni, A D Batra, Shreechand Surana
Publisher: Rajasthankesari Adhyatmayogi Upadhyay Shree Pushkar Muni Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 579

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श्री पुष्करमुनि अभिनन्दन ग्रन्थ : पंचम खण्ड
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AHIMSA-A Psychological Study
Dr. T. G. Kalghatgi, M. A., Ph. D.
(1) Romain Rolland said 'Those who discovered the principle of Ahińsă are far greater than Napolean or Wellington'. Gandhiji said that non-violence is the law of our species and violence is the law of the brutes. And Zimmer said that Ahimsä or non-violence is the first principle or Dharma of saints or sages by which they lift themselves out of the range of normal human beings to the higher state of self-realisation.
The Jainas have given the supreme importance to the principle of non-violence. Ahimsa paramodharmah' is the cardinal principle of Jainism. In ancient Indian thought Ahimsā was the important principle of conduct. In the Brhadaranyaka and Chhandogya Upanişads one is advised to practise abiṁsā and to develop qualities of self-discipline. Similar advice in given in the Bhagavadgitā. Patanjali emphasises the importance of ahimsä as an important vrata to be practised as psychological preparation.
(II) Hirsā is the root of all evil. It should be avoided by all. And Ahimsa is the root of negative and positive virtues. Patanjali Yoga includes ahimsă along with four other vratas as necessary condition for the psychological background and the ethical preparation for the highest form of yoga. that is samādhi. Self-realisation would be possible if we first prepare the background for the ethical foundation of meditation. Ahimsā gives this background. A person who has moral strength can alone practise the higher forms of meditation. And that would be possible if moral foundation is strong. Practice of non-violence does help the development of personality towards self-realisation. It is therefore necessary to understand the implications of the concept of ahimsā for the proper appreciation of the psychological basis of the development of personality.
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(III) Ahimsā is non-injury. It is abstaining from doing harm to any living being physically or mentally. The Jainas have analysed the concept of ahimsä on psychological and ethical bases. This is possible if we understand the nature of the life. both in the empirical and spiritual sense. All things are divided into living and non-living. The Jainas believe in the plurality of jīvas living individuals. The jivas in the phenomenal world are classified on the basis of various principles like the status and the number of sense-organs etc. There is the vegetable kingdom; there are one-sensed organisms like the earth-bodied, water-bodied and the plants. The trasajīvas are the animal world. They have more than one sense, upto five sense-organs. The jtvas are possessed of prānas, life-forces. On the bases of the analyses of the living organisms and the lifeforce possessed by them, ahiṁsā is non-injury to any living being or a life-force of an individual being through the body, mind and speech and through three karanas, i. e., onself doing injury, causing others to injury or to consenting to the act of injury. We are not to injure any living organism, however small it may be, or a life-force of the organism directly with our own hands, by causing someone to do so on our behalf or by giving consent to the act of injury caused by
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