Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

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

Page 236

FOUNDATIONS OF WORLD PEACE : AHIMSĀ
AND ANEKĀNTA SATKARI MOOKERJEE
I must observe at the outset even at the risk of being misunderstood and charged with patriotic bias that it is India's distinctive prerogative to have preached, promulgated and practised the cult of ahimsi i e. non-injury to life. All religious sects of Orthodox Vedic religion and the protestant creeds that emerged in India's soil have accepted this doctrine as the cardinal basis of spiritual life. The protestant creeds have arraigned Vedic religion on the charge of approval of violence and injury which is inevitable in sacrifices There is no doubt that aniinal sacrifice is a necessary part of the cult of Vedic sacrifice. But even the uncompromising advocates of orthodoxy could not plead for the cult of himsä, and had to plump for non-violence and non-injury as integral part of religion (ma himsyāt sarvă bhūtāni anyatra tīrthebhyaḥ). But sacrifices were placed in se parate category and it is maintained that the injury to animal in sacrifice is not inspired by personal greed or malice, and hence its semblance to himsa is a deceptive appearance. I shall have occasion to discuss the question of motive and intention in so far as they bear upon the essential character of ahimsa.
Sarkhya philosophy is uncompromising in its advocacy of ahimsa and does not make exception or concession even for Vedic sacrifices. One has to suffer the unwelcome consequences of himsă involved in Vedic sacrifices, notwithstanding the purity of the motive. One may attain heaven as the reward of Vedic sacrifice but has to suffer the punishment of commitring himsa. So it is not absolutely pure (Cf. drșțavadanusravikah sa hyavisuddhi-kṣayātiśayayuktahSankhyakarika, 2). Sankhya is an orthodox system and this vehement advocacy of ahimsa on its part shows that even orthodox Brahmapical faith was unyielding in its insistence on this fundamental ethical issue.
The uncompromising, unhesitating and unambiguous advocacy of ahimsa not only as a religious tenet but as the very foundational principle of religious life is the line of demarcation between Indian religions and those of the Semitic origin. This question of injury to
1. Read at the Seminar of Scholars on April 19, 1970.
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