Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 161

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 1
..“Himsa means causing pain to or killing any life out of anger or from selfish purpose, or with the intention of injuring it. Refrainiug from so doing is ahimsā.
“The physician who prescribes bitter medicine causes you pain but does no himsa. If he fails to prescribe bitter medicine when it is necessary to do so, he fails in his duty of ahiņsă. The surgeon who, from fear of causing pain to his patient, hesitates to amputate a rotten limb is guilty of himsa. He who refrains from killing a murderer who is about to kill his ward (when he cannot prevent him otherwise) earns no merit, but commits a sin; he practises no ahimsa but himsa out of a fatuous sense of ahimsa.
"Let us now examine the root of ahimsa. It is uttermost selflessness. Selflessness means complete freedom from a regard for one's body. When some sage observed man killing numberless creatures, big and small, out of a regard for his own body, he was shocked at his ignorance. He pitied him for thus forgetting the deathless soul, encased within the perishable body, and for thinking of the ephemeral physical pleasure in preference to the eternal bliss of the spirit. He therefrom deduced the duty of complete self-effacement. He saw that if man desires to realize himself, i.e. Truth, he could do so only by being completely detached from the body, i.e. by making all other beings feel safe from him. That is the way of ahimsā.
"A realization of this truth shows that the sin of himsă consists not in merely taking life, but in taking life for the sake of one's perishable body. All destruction therefore involved in the process of eating, drinking, etc. is selfish and therefore himsa. But the destruction of bodies of tortured creatures being for their own peace cannot be regarded as himsä, or the unavoidable destruction caused for the purpose of protecting one's wards cannot be regarded as himsā" (HD. pp. 198-9).
The definition of ahimsa given above substantially tallies with the one proposed by the Jainas who, however, would not agree all the illustrations adduced in this connection. To refrain from killing an otherwise uncontrollable murderer is not a sin according to Jainism Similarly the destruction of bodies of tortured creatures would also be regarded as himsa by the Jainas. The calf-incident and the proposal to kill the monkeys and rabid dogs were also not approved by the followers of Jainism. Referring to the calf-incident, a correspondent wrote:
"Supposing my elder brother is suffering from a terrible and painful malady and doctors have despaired of his life and I too feel likewise, should I in the circumstances put him out of life ?"