Book Title: Studies in Jainism
Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
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REFLECTIONS ON ANUVRATA
107 clear. should be of non-violent character. This is both a departure from and an addition to Christ's prescription of turning the other cheek to the person who smites on the one. Swami Vivekananda opined that resistance was for the householder. though non-resistance should be the motto for the Sannyāsins. Furthermore, non-resistance should not issue out of inability or cowardice. "A mouse hardly forgives a cat when it allows itself to be torn by it". Mahatma Gandhi, a personality of Jaina temperament and outlook declares in the same vein. He preaches non-violent resistance.
Non-violent resistance implies strength, never weakness, on the part of the resistor. In Gandhiji's view forgiveness adorns the hero, while pugnacity bespeaks cowardice. Just before the great battle of Kurukshetra started, Arjuna was overtaken by remorse. He was disinclined to fight which might result in the killing of his senior kinsmen and revered superiors. Sri Krşņa called Arjuna a coward. For it was not his compunction, said Sri Krsna, that came to possess
a but it was the vast array of the Kaurava with its galaxy of reputed commanders that swayed the mind of Pandava towards despondency. Asuvrata commends to foresake despondency and to fight, but in a non-violent way.
Anuvrata is clear about moderation of acquisitiveness, which is perhaps the strongest of all human impulses and which knows no limit. In the Mahābhārata the story of Jajati underscores both the traits of acquisitiveness declaring through the lips of Jajati that all kinds of wealth : corn, cattle and women – in their entirety would not be adequate for a single individual, and therefore acquisitiveness should be chastised, i.e., should be moderated.
This is rather the eternal Indian lesson which teaches how little one can live with. Jesus Christ has also warned against unbridled acquisition, declaring that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to reach heaven, i.e., to enjoy blissful existence.
Sociologically, the acquisitive drive leads to all conflicts
1. In those days these were the chief forms of wealth.
