Systems of Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

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THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
monks or the holy men of Buddha whose first injunction was protection of all living beings). “The Talapoin of Siam", he says, “will pass whole weeks in the dense woods under a small awning of branches and palm leaves and never make a fire in the night to scare away the wild beasts, as all other people do who travel through the woods of this country. The people consider it a miracle that no Talapoin is ever devoured. The tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses—with which the neighbourhood abounds-respect him and travellers placed in secure ambuscade have often seen these wild beasts lick the hands and feet of the sleeping Talapoin." The Jaina history also testifies to the same fact. Mahavira—the twenty-fourth prophet of the Jainas who lived 600 years before Christ-is reported to have attracted, by the sweetness of his musical sermons in parks, wild beasts and animals who stood before him in perfect peace and harmony. Even in the present times no wild beast is known to have devoured a Jaina in India whose first principle is the protection of life
even of the tiniest insect. Strange to say that the Western powers and nations attempt to restore peace and harmony among people by the sharpest swords, huge man-killing machines and animal-food.
(ii) The second forbearance of the five we mentioned before is truthfulness. What is the result ? When entire and unswerving truthfulness is fully established, all thoughts and words become immediately effective.17 What others get by acts such as sacrifice to deities etc. he gets by mere thought or word. Emperor Marcus Aurelius says: “He who acts unjustly acts impiously, for since the universal nature has made rational animals for the sake of one another, to help one another according to their deserts, but in no way 17. YS. 2.36