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in defence of his kingdom, but would prevent one's fighting with a lunatic, or a blind man who had hurt one uninten. tionally. The vow also forbids the killing of weak creatures like mosquitoes and any other troublesome insects, and prohibits acting as 'agent provocateur'.
The man who takes this vow must avoid five faults in the treatment of animals: he must never tie an animal up too tightly; beat it unmercifully; cut its limbs; overload or overwork it; or neglect to feed it properly.
The vow is infringed by planning to kill any one, even if the evil purpose be never carried out. It also forbids animal sacrifice, the Jaina arguing that, if mokşa be attained by sacrifice, we had better sacrifice our fathers and mothers! If an animal is in pain, it is not permissible to kill it in order to end its sufferings, for who knows that it will not suffer worse things in the next life?
The reason the Jaina give for their horror of killing (hiṁsā) is not, as some say, the fear of being haunted by the dead animal's ghost, but the realization that every jiva has two bodies, Kārmaņa and Taijasa, and also a third which may be Audārika (i.e. human or animal) or Vai. kreya (i.e. a demi-god or a hell-being). Every jiva (save a Siddha) forms round it through its karma a body, which is called its kārmaņa body, and also another invisible body, taijasa, which at its death will enable it to assume a new form; these two unseen bodies are indestructible and loathe being separated from the third body, which is destructible, be it audārika or vaikreya. If, therefore, -we destroy a living body, it is like destroying the beloved home of the taijasa and kārmaņa bodies.
The actual words used in taking this first vow are, in the case of Sthānakavāsi Jaina, mixed Gujarāti and Māgadhi, and might be translated : 'I will desist from destroying all great lives such as Trasa jiva (i.e.
1 It would surely seem advisable to quote these five faults in the publi. cations of the Indian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
