Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 79

Jaina Canonical Texts
The śramaņa knows fully well that nobody likes sufferings and so he takes to non-violence (ahimsa) to all beings. He treats his relatives and enemies alike 21 To avoid injury to living beings, however small they be, he regulates even his walking; and movement at night is also prohibited. 22
An analytical study on ahimstī as reflected in the Jaina texts represents the total involvement and intensive care taken by the Jaina Parivrājakas for the performance of this act both physically and mentally. Ahimsā is generally associated with 'acts' of killing, injuring, violence, etc.; so the act itself has to be avoided but at the same time, the intention must be pure. In other words, coordination between the mind and body is considered necessary for the practice of non-violence. This should be accompanied also by speech emanating from the heart which knows nothing but love. The result is that there is absolutely no thought of injury and no specch of it either, indicating that there is no instigation of somebody else to commit violence.
The Jaina teacher made himsā (violence) into two distinct categories, as mentioned earlier-bhāva-himsă (violence in thought) and dravya-hirsā (violence by physical action). The former has predominated in the discussion of ahirisă (non-violence) by the Jajna thinkers. It is to be noted that even before the definition of ahirisa given by Umāsvati or who in his Tattvarthainigama-sútra developed Jainism into an influential epistemological and metaphysical system, Acārya Kundakunda (Umāsvati's teacher) who flourished probably 'at the beginning of the Christian era,23 had ordained that whether was killed or not, a negligent person certainly committed violence. A vigilant person, on the other hand, who acted with care did not suffer bondage by mere material injury In fact, the Jaina philosophers think over this matter so deeply and intensively that they classify hi jisā or violence into 108 varieties so that the aspirant can detect even the minutest form of violence. According to them violence (hirsū) may broadly be divided into three categories --kặta (to act), kārita (caused to be done) and anum dita (applauding). This threefold violence becomes ninefold as it can be committed either by the instrumentality of mind, speech and body. The ninefold violence again becomes twenty-sevenfold for it can have three stages--särambha (thinking of violent action), samārambha (making preparation for violence) and ärambha (actual committance). The twenty-sevenfold violence becomes