Spiritual Awakening and other Essays

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 73

.the operation of intense-passion-infected Yoga (activity of mind, body, and speech). Suicide, homicide and killing of any other life whatsoever aptly sum up the nature of Himsā, inasmuch as these villainous actions are rendered conceivable only when the Dravya-Prāṇas and the Bhāva-Prānas pertaining to oneself and to others are injured. The minimum number of Dravya-Prāṇas has been considered to be four and the maximum has been known to be ten; and the BhāvaPrāņas are the very attributes of Jīva. The amount of injury will thus be commensurate with the number of Prāņas injured at a particular time and occasion.68
Hiṁsā is of two kinds, namely, intentional and nonintentional. The intentional perpetrator of Hiṁsā engages himself in the commitment of the acts of Himsā by his own mind, speech and action; provokes others to commit them; and endorses such acts of others. Besides, Hiṁsā which is unavoidably committed by defending oneself from one's foes is denominated as non-intentional defensive Hiṁsā. This leads us to the philosophy of fighting defensive wars.69
Now the householder is incapable of turning away completely form Hiṁsā; hence he should keep himself away from the deliberate commission of Himsā of the two-sensed to five-sensed beings. The commitment of Hiṁsā in adopting defensive contrivances, cannot be counteracted by him. Thus he has to commit intentional injury to one-sensed Jīvas, namely, the vegetable-bodied, the air-bodied, the fire-bodied etc; and non-intentional injury in fighting defensive wars. Even in the realm of one-sensed Jīvas and in the realm of fighting defensive wars he is required to confine his operations in such a way as may affect the life and existence of a very limited number of Jīvas. In these two province the point to be noted is that of alleviating the amount of injury
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Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays