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śramana, Vol. 57, No.2
April-June 2006
THE ROLE OF AHIŃSĀ IN HEALTHCARE ETHICS
Professor Cromwell Crawford *
1. Historical Overview
“Hissam mā kuru" - do no injury. This is the moral mandate of Hindu medical ethics. The Sanskrit term (a ‘not', and himsā, ‘harmful or injurious') means “not injure or harm’. The Hindu maxim is older than its counterpart found in the Hippocratic Oath: "primum non nocere" - first do no harm, and is also more ethically nuanced.
Most Hindu cults consider ahińsă a cardinal virtue and the essence of religion, as expressed in the famous phrase, “ahiṁsā paramo dharmaḥ. “ It affirms reverence for life and the avoidance of injury.
Premonitions of ahimsā can be detected in early Vedic times, some 1500 to 1000 B.C.E., though admittedly the dominant values of the Aryan settlers were shaped by their need for territorial conquest and the struggle for power. Three formative principles provide the soil for later seed to be sown : Rta (Eternal Order), Satya (Truth), and Tapas (Spiritual Fire)}
In its cosmic aspect, şta signifies the Law of Nature which imposes order on chaos and creates aesthetic form; and in its social aspect it stands for Moral Law which produces goodness.? As part of Rta, Satya means integrity, and as ultimate Reality (Sat), it is spiritually realized. Tapas supplies the internal combustion to lift humans from the state of nature to the divine state by arousing the * Department of Religion, University of Hawaii (USA)
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