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146
TIRTHANKARA MAHAVIRA AND HIS SARVODAYA TIRTHA
simply, Viz, mild attachment is also a form of attachment. Of course, when attachment is deep, it is a greater act of violence as against a mild attachment; but when there is no way to get rid of it altogether, at least its intensity should be reduced. All the same, this is not dharma Dharma stands for a total absence of attachment, malice, greed, etc, and that is another name for non-violence
A second question may be, complete non-violence is not possible even for the monks Then for lay men (followers), it should be enough if they practise kindness (the attitude to help save others). In his discussion on the Followers, Acarya Amrita Candra has established that non-violence is one and takes no types Of course, there may be degrees of non violence when it is adopted in life; but violence is always violence.
If one cannot fully give up violence, he should give up at least a part, but then that does not become non-violence. If we cannot fully give up violence, we should give up at least a part, and when we cannot do even that, we should not at least say that less violence is dharma. Even good attachment is a form of violence and cannot be called dharma,
Here may arise an important question If killing is violence, then why not saving non-violence? Since the latter shelters a mild passion and pure attitude, even the texts have considered it to be non-violence in practice. But this is not correctly so and the Jaina texts have discussed this in all its minuteness which needs be properly understood. According to the philosophy of the Jainas, killing is indeed violence, but saving is also violence, being the outcome of attachment, whatever its actual form. Already it has been stated that the very genesis of attachment is a form of violence.
Indeed the attitude to save is superior to the other one, the attitude to kill, but it is attachment all the same. Fire may be lit with neem wood or sandal wood, but it must burn. The same with attachment. Non-violence stands for complete detachment, not for good or bad forms of attachment.
Though the act of slaughter causes sinful bondage and act
