Spiritual Code and Restraints

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 20

AHINSÄ The Non-Violence
Samayä Savvabhooesu Sattu-Mittesu Vä Jage Pänäiväyaviraee Jävajjivae Dukkaram.
Uttaradhyayan Sutra
Equanimity towards all beings in the universe, to the friends as well as the foes, is Ahinsä; (though) it is hard to refrain from hurting the living beings for the entire life.
The first Sunday of October, we celebrate as Ahinsä Din or the day of non-violence. This is in token of the birth day of Mahätmä Gandhi who was born on October 2 1869. He gained freedom for India by conducting a non-violent struggle for independence against the British rulers, who had occupied India. His mission was to observe Ahinsä in every walk of life. He said that Ahinsä was his life as well as breath. The celebration of his birth day as Ahinsädin is thus in tune with his concept. Let us examine that concept at some length.
Ahinsä or nonviolence literally means not to hurt. Though having apparently a negative derivation, it has very positive connotation. The concept of Ahinsä is based on the fact that every living being wishes to be happy and tries to avoid pain. Hurting results in pain. Therefore in order to avoid giving pain, we should refrain from hurting others. For most of the people, this approach is restricted to the realm of human beings. There are some who go beyond that and would not like to hurt animals as well. But their concept is usually limited to the domesticated animals. 2500 years ago, Lord Mahävir extended the concept of non-violence to all the living beings. He could visualize that not only the minute insects, but most of the seemingly inanimate objects like vegetation also are one sensed living beings. They have life and undergo the sense of pleasure and pain. He therefore urged to refrain from hurting even such one sensed beings.
As long as we live, we happen to hurt many living beings. The air that we breathe and the water that we drink contain minute organism. Even the vegetarian food that we may take is prepared from the plant life, which has to be destroyed for the sake of our food. The question would then arise: 'How is it possible to observe non-violence?' The plain answer is that it is impossible to stay totally non-violent, because indulging in some sort of violence is inevitable for the survival. Lord Umäswäti therefore defines violence as 'Pramattayogät Pränvyavaropanam Hinsä'. It means that the deprival of life due to nonvigilance is violence. For all practical purposes, non-violence is therefore defined as avoiding all possible violence. As such, Jainism exhorts every one to undertake all the activities in a way, which does not cause avoidable violence. For our requirement of food also, it urges to take only vegetarian food and that too of the type that does not involve multi-organism.
But this is only a physical and rather superficial aspect of the concept of Ahinsä, which really has a deeper and subtler significance. Physical non-violence, we observe primarily