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AHIŃSĀ AND THE GOOD
It goes without saying that the doctrine of ahimsā is the be-all and end-all of the Jinist way of life and living. May be, keeping in view this inclusive nature of ahiṁsā, the Ayāro remarkably pronounces that none of the living beings ought to be killed, ought to be ordered, ought to be enslaved, ought to be distressed and ought to be put to unrest (savve pāņā .... na hantavvā, na ajjāveyavvā, na parighetavvā, na paritāveyavvā, na uddaveyavvā?). It is a unique and unparalleled statement in the entire Jinist literature. I need not say that it basically embraces all the aspects of social experience in its normative perspective. The political organisation, the economic orientation and the institutional set up can easily derive inspiration from this ethically significant statement. Thus this above statement of the Āyāro is representative of the extent which ahimsā is supposed to include, although most of the Jaina texts seem to include in ahiṁsā only non-killing. As for example, we find pramattayogāt prāņavyaparopaņam hiṁsā? (The severance of vitalities out of passion is hiṁsā). Pānāvahań nigganthā vajjayanti' (Munis discredit killing). And Jāvanti loe pānā na haạe no ghāyae* (One should neither kill nor cause to kill living beings). The essence of being a wise-man is this that he does not kill any being. It should be borne in mind that if ahiṁsā is understood only in the sense of non-killing, it is narrow and socially not of wide significance. In fact killing is the last limit of himsā and not the only expression of himsā. There are hundreds of expressions of himsā and ahiṁsā below that last limit. It seems to me that owing to the fact of avoiding
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