Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad

Page 62

CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
29
rules must be based only on facts observed in this life and that advancement in this life is the object to be gained. To a certain extent the destruction of the physical life is the death of the soul, for it is a change in the condition of the soul; the relation is broken. In order to live the highest kind of life there ought to be the greatest amount of spiritual life, and this killing of other beings ought to be carried only to that extent necessary to support the body and not for any other purpose. No act, therefore, ought to be done which would necessarily lead to killing other beings. A beautiful illustration is given in the Jain philosophy. There was a gentleman who was a great merchant, and for smuggling certain articles into his store was punished with a certain type of imprisonment. The next day his son was injured by another person who was also sentenced to the same type of imprisonment and was put into the same cell in the penitentiary and on account of the peculiar laws of the city in which they lived both of them were put in the stocks, wooden instruments in which they cannot move. Sometimes they would be put into chains, and then also one cannot move without the concurrence of the other. For some purpose the one person whom we call A wished to go out of the cell and said to the other whom we call B, “I wish to go out”. B replied, “You gave me none of the food which was brought to you." A said, “Next time I will do so," and the next day when the food was brought he gave him a portion of it and continued to do so every day. B, of course, was obliged to stay in the prison one day longer than A as he was imprisoned one day after A. When A was released he did not send for the food again for B, because there would be no necessity for sending it. In the same manner we say of the body and the soul that they are put together as these men were chained together, and as the soul requires the body to serve its purpose, food is necessary to sustain the body in accomplishing this purpose; but if it is taken for another purpose there is a departure from the right reason, and instead of assisting the soul it injures the soul. We are to live just as A. A gave the food for a certain purpose so that he might leave