Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 56

Moral and Social Outlook of Śiamaņism
could be stabilized. For making the Ahimsa-Vrata firm one must exercise care in speech and thought, in walking and other movements, in accepting and placing things and in inspecting food and drink before taking them. For practising truth one must abandon anger, greed, fear and ridicule and at the same time avoid speaking contrarily. For practising the avoidance of theft, one should dwell in lonely or abandoned places, not obstruct others, take only pure alms and cease disputing proprietory rights with one's companions. For chastity one should abandon attending to tales of passion or to feminine beauty, nor should one recall previous love or partake of aphrodisiacs or tasty food nor should one decorate oneself. For non-possessiveness one should cultivate equanimity towards the pleasant and the unpleasant objects of the five senses. 48 Apart from these particular bhāvanās, one should meditate on the fact that violence etc., are in reality of the nature of suffering. Just as they cause suffering to oneself they cause suffering to another. It is worth noticing that this way of explaining why violence etc., are of the nature of suffering, is different from the Buddhist approach which insists on describing everything as suffer ing which undergoes change and is impermanent. 4 9
It is well known that for the Jainas souls are ubiquitous and hence all motion is liable to cause injury to living being. In fact it was even said jeeringly –
jale jantuḥ sthale janturäkäse jantureva cal
jantumālākule loke katham bhiksurahimsakaḥ// 'There are living beings in water and on land and in the sky. When the whole world is teeming with life, how will the mendicant be free from violence?' In answer to this it was stated that the very minute forms of life are not easily injured, while injury to the grosser forms of life can be avoided by deliberate care. It has also to be remembered that the Jainas distinguish bhāvendriya from dravyendriya. Moral life depends primarily on the condition of the bhāvendriya or the psychic sense. Its purification requires the eradication of the Kaṣāyas i.e., anger, pride, crookedness and stupidity. When the passions are eradicated,
48. See Acăränga Sutra: Jaina Sūtras, Pt. ), pp. 202-210. 49. See my Studies in the Origins of Buddhism, pp. 397ff.