Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

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

Page 170

THE JAIN IDEAL OF AHIMSA...
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Gandhi first learnt that milk stimulated animal passion (ib., p. 401). It was Raychandbhai's advice to Gandhi that rather than kill the serpent he should allow himself to be killed by it (HD., p. 204).
Some people think that Gandhi's idea of satyāgraha owes its origin to the practice of dharna whereby a creditor at an obstinate debtor's door, an aggrieved person at the door of an oppressor or enemy, sat fasting until death or redress released him (MG, p. 225). Whatever the origin, the satyagraha was forged into a soul force against brute force, the di vine in man against the brute in him. This is undeniable and indisputable.
A Jaina muni once pointed out that Gandhi was not so much a votary of ahimsa, as he was of truth, that he put latter in the first place and the former in the second, and that he was capable of sacrificing non-violence for the sake of truth. Gandhi vouched for the rightness of the statement and averred that it was in the course of his pursuit of Truth that he discovered non-violence (MMIG, p. 10). The opponent must be weaned from error and established in Truth by patience and sympathy. Pursuit of Truth therefore did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent' (MMG, p. 17). Jainism as a religion of individual perfection postulated ahimsā as the spiritual means and also the end which was identical with moksa, whereas Gandhi took a comprehensive view of life in its different aspects, visualizing a comprehensive end which he characterized as Truth. And consequently he discovered the religious principle of ahimsă as the means to the realization of Truth. This also explains Gandhi's position that there are no politics devoid of religion, that politics subserve religion, and that politics bereit of religion are a death-trap because they kill the soul (HD, p. 14).
I should end my paper by quoting a few verses from the Himsāştaka of Acārya Haribhadra, which would be found to anticipate not only Gandhi's ideal of ahimsă, but also his exposition of himsa :
avidhāyāpi hi himsām hiņsāphalabhājanam bhavatyekaḥ / kstvāpyaparo himsam himsāphalabhājanam na syāt //1// ekasyalpa himsā dadāti kāle phalamanalpam / anyasya mahāhiņsa khalvaphala bhavati paripāke / 2 / kasyāpi diśati himsa hiṁsāphalamekameva phalakale / anyasya caiva himsa disat yahimsāphalam vipulam /6/ hiņsaphalamaparasya tu dadātyahimsa tu paripāme / itarasya punarhimsă dišatyahimsāphalam nanyat 11711