________________
11
disgust, condemn cannibalism, but do not object to the slaughtering of animals for culinary and other purposes; or which strictly forbid the bloodshed of a human being, but allow the murdering of the murderer, or that of the assailing, or otherwise menacing, enemy, all of whom have ethics against them.
Thus much be said concerning the Pratyakhyāna of Hiṁsā, i.e., Injury that precaution against the binding of new latent suffering, by deliberate abstention form actions connected with harm to others.
It has its counterpart in the attempts of securing new latent happiness, by furthering the well-being of others. Though there is no hope of gaining genuine, i.e., completely pure and unhampered happiness as long as any particles of karma of either kind mar the soul, still a certain amount of good Karma is a necessary condition, in order to secure that bodily and mental constitution from the basis of which the struggle against the obnoxious Karma is believed to be secured by charity, hospitality and selfless service. And here too, a gradation of objects can be observed. It is, of course, meritorious to practise charity whenever our heart is moved to compassion. It is meritorious to build Pānjrāpoles for the relief of poor sick animals, it is meritorious to provide the poor hungry with bread, people suffering from cold with clothes, and homeless ones with a roof over their heads: still nothing can come up to the service done to a poor pious brother in Mahāvīra. The more he comes up to the ideal laid down in the scriptures, the higher is considered to be the merit of serving him. This explains the remarkable zeal with which one can see Šravakas (laymen) hasten to feast a brother Jaina, especially on the day when the latter breaks a fast of long duration; and it accounts for the readiness with which a Jaina Community or Jaina Institution hastens to receive and to give facilities even to a foreign scholar, who happens to be student of Jainism, and whose learned activity in connection with Jainism
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
