Some Aspects of Indian Culture

Author(s): A S Gopani, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 44

Thus spake Mahavira
Jainism on individualistic aspect than on the social, that is to say, the objective. Purity of mind more than anything else is the sine qua non of the Jaina ethics. Ascetic processes and procedures without it do not take one any further. One can reach it only through the gateway of self-control. Even-mindedness and maditation go hand in hand in Jainism. One is crippled without the other and is effective only when in company. Ethics and metaphysics are not completely divorced from each other in Jainiam as is the case with Hinduism. This is evidenced in the Jaina texts while discussing into details the rationale of Bandha (Bondage) and Moksa (Emancipation)-two of the nine categories referred to before. The anger, egoism, deceit and greed are the four cardinal sins ranking above all the vices in their harmfulness and horribleness. The strangeness about them all is that while committing the one, a person commits the other also automatically and immediately. A person falling and remaining for ever into the clutches of these four sins forfeits. once for all his right to heavens and to emancipation. The significantly moral character of the whole ethical code is clearly brought home when one remembers the fact that Mahavira ruled that both-ascetic and householder-should not only make a daily con ession of the acts of omissions and commissions but also should atone for them. One would be convinced of the hollowness of the argument contained in the accusation that Jainism is a negative creed, if at all he cares to go through a formidable list detailing the pious and positive social duties as part of Punya which one is called up on to perform without demur and deceit. One has to admit "Not in vain is practical ethics wedded to philosophical speculation in Jainism".
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Five vows referred to above collectively constitute the ethical code of the Jainas. They contribute to the furtherance of the social uplift as much as they do individual's. As said before, the world consists of two kinds of reality, the living and the non-living. Every living being has a soul, however imperfect or insignificant, the body, its habitat may be. Avoidance of injury, even the least, plays, therefore, an important role in Jaina ethics. Ahimsa as enunciated and elaborated by Mahavira, comprehends Ahimsa in thought, word and action. The application of the principle of Ahimsa has sure, visible effects in other fields also. In non-technical language it also means the maximum kindness or reverance towards or for the animate world. Every living being has a sanctity, a dignity, a divinity of its own. Life is sacred, however big or small, a living may be socially or otherwise. Use of brute force implies a standing negation of the worth of personality as personality, the dignity of man. as man. We have witnessed this negation many a time during the last hundred years and it poses a formidable problem. Competition in armaments, secret diplomacy, aggressive nationalism, imperialism, exploitation and blackmailing, recial discrimation etc. etc. What are all these--if not various forms of the negation of principle of Ahimsa ? A tremandous effort, rational and moral is, therefore, needed to bring home to the world that a way out of the present turmoil and trouble leading to real peace and progress lies in installing the Jaina principle of non-injury, non-violence (Ahimsa) in place of violence (Hiths). The principle of non-injury also means that equal