Siddhachalam NJ 1990 04 Mahavir Jayanti

Author(s): Siddhachalam NJ
Publisher: USA International Mahavir Jain Mission Siddhachalam

Page 39

ism to its logical conclusions. No other religious community in India has gone so far to avoid the killing of any kind of organic life for the purpose of nourishment.
D. PALI BUDDHISM VIEWPOINT
against meat-eating.
C. JAIN VIEW-POINT TheJainas have extended ahimsa not only to include animals whose flesh is eatable, but all beings. One Jain text demands that those who desire to avoid violence should first of all take care to renounce wine, flesh, honey and the five udumbgra or fig fruits. Honey is not considered to be a vegetarian food because of the brutal method of gathering it from the comb. There are also small creatures born in the honey.
It is peculiar to Jain vegetarianism that the Jainas are sensitive to even the microscopic living beings that are in all kinds of food. One should not eat fresh butter because it is the birth-place of numerous entities or jivas. One who has renounced eating at night by the discipline of mind, body and speech observes ahimsa. This is so because many insects are killed while dining in the dark. Even fresh vegetable should not be eaten because they contain numerous living cells.
The Jainas even explain the prohibition of wine as a necessary act of non-violence. Firstly, wine stupefies a man and a stupefied man is prone to commit acts of violence. Secondly, they point out that drinking wine involves the killing of innumerable creatures responsible for the fermentation process. Thirdly, a drunken man's heart becomes full of pride, anger, greed and other violent feelings.
The Jainas have taken vegetarian-
A monk should abstain from raw meat (amaka-mamsa).. The Buddhist monks who had to obey their daily food, were supposed to cultivate a taste for every type of almsfood. They had to accept whatever was offered to them by sympathetic householders. On one occasion the Buddha allowed a monk to eat raw flesh and drink blood as medicine to cure a infectious disease contracted from an animal.
The Buddha advised against accepting meat when (1) it is seen (eittha), (2) heard (suta) or (3) suspected (parisankita) that an animal was killed on purpose for a monk. But meat may be taken when (1) it is not seen, (2) hear or (3) suspected that an animal has been killed on purpose for a monk. It is added that the supreme virtue is abiding in friendliness.
In the Amagandha-Sutta it is stated that killing, binding, cheating, anger, envy, wantonnes (asannata) injury (vihesa), cruelty (ludda), harshness (pharusa), hostility (viruddha), offensive posture (atipati) -- all have a repulsive odour (ama-gandha , the smell of raw or rotten flesh), but not so the eating of meat.
It is still a matter of dispute whether the Buddha died after eating meat. E.J. Thomas, referring to the different com
mentaries on the word Sukara-maddava, says that this term means 'pig's soft food', flesh or food eaten by pigs. The oldest commentaries held it to be pig's flesh.
Asokaexpressed the principle that no life (jiva) should be nourished by other life. He ruled that on specific auspicious days fish were not to be killed or sold. In olden days numerous beings were killed in the royal kitchen to prepare curries. Later on only three animals were slaughtered in a day: two peacocks and one deer. Asoka insisted that even these must not be slaughtered in the future.
E. MAHAYANA VIEW POINT One Mahayana text, the Lankayatra-Sutra, makes the strongest plea for vegetarianism. In this respect it differs from Pali Buddhism. It gives many reasons why we should not eat meat: During the long course of transmigration, there is not a single living being who has not been ones mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter or some other relative, and who may now live as a beas,domestic animal, bird or as a wombborn creature. It is asked how a bodhisattva could possibly eat the flesh of any living being that is of the same nature as himself. In addition to these metaphysical reasons other reasons are given to show the necessity of vegetarianism. The flesh of a dog, ass, buffalo, horse, bullor man, which is not generally eaten by people, can be sold for money as mutton on the road side.
With Best Compliments
From
SHEFI DIAMONDS, INC.
580 Fifth Avenue, Suite #1227
New York New York 10036
Tel: (212) 391-1482 Fax: (212) 719-2892
Jain Education Intemational
MAHAVIR JAYANTI SOUVENIR ate 37P MAHAVIR JAYANTI SOUVENIR