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collected by exploiting labours and weak persons. But these activities should not be considered as religious behaviour because these are based upon irreligious and illegal means and methods. They are externally religious, but internally irreligious i.e. violence. Sacrifice
Sacrifice (Baliprathā) of the Vedic tradition is known as a religious practice, in which some animal is killed as offering to Gods or Goddesses to please them. Therefore in the Vedic tradition it has been asserted -
“Vaidiki hiṁsā hissã na bhavati" That violence prescribed in the Vedas is not a violence. The theory of sacrifice has been established in the Vedas and has been classified as a religious activity and not as irreligious deed or violence. But Hemacandrācārya, a great Jaina thinker, in his work, Anyayogavyvacchedavātrinsikā, has vehemently criticised this theory." Though the theory of sacrifice has been mentioned in the Vedas it cannot be the cause of religion. Even after being introduced in the Vedas, violence cannot be treated as religion. A saying cannot be proved as exception to some reference different from it. Approval of sacrifice in the Vedas is just like a theory which accepts sitting on the throne after killing one's own son. According to the Vedic view, the person who performs sacrifice gets pleasure and prosperity and the animal which is killed as offering to God goes to heaven as a result of that religious performance. But the Jainacārya has raised here two questions.
i) Does the animal killed before Gods or Goddesses want to go to heaven at the cost of its own life? It is but natural that nobody wants to be killed. Even for the sake of enjoying heavenly pleasure nobody wants to finish the present life. So it is irreligious to kill an animal with a view to sending it to heaven.
ii) Suppose the animal slaughtered on the altar goes to heaven, why not the sacrificers kill their own near and dear ones as religious offering to Gods and Goddesses so that they will go to heaven? But they do not do so. It means that the idea of sending an animal to heaven by killing it on some altar is wrong.
