Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

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

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 1
life did not cause trouble to the Hebrew prophets, the Christian apostles, and Islam. Christianity has advocated friendship and love so far as it concerns human relationship. But the love and compassion do not reach down to the animal level. So far as Manu and the Jaina prophets are concerned, they have scruples even regarding vegetable life. It is the special characteristic of the Jaina community that they abstained from animal food since the inception of Jaina religion, which cannot be definitely assigned a historical date.
I shall now be concerned with the difference between the Buddhist and the Jaina ethical attitudes so far as the moral value of ahimsa is considered.
Physical violence per se has little moral value. Its moral value stems from a consideration of motive underlying it. Brutes and animals are therefore neither condemned nor excused for committing violence as they are incapable of cherishing ill will or malice. In point of fact violence is the rule of life in the animal kingdom; the stronger animal preys upon the weaker for its very subsistence. It is only among humans that the question has got any relevance. One of the reasons seems to be the possibility of finding substitutes for animal food. The well known verse of the Pañcatantra gives the clue: "When a man can fill his stomach with vegetables spontaneously growing in wilderness, why should he commit the sin of killing another fellow creature".
svacchanda-vanajatena śākenapi prapuryate /
asya dagdhodarasyārthe kaḥ kuryāt pātakam mahat //
The Upali episode recorded in the Majjhima Nikaya of the Pali canon may or may not be a correct appraisal of the Jaina position on ahimsa. But whether it be a fake or a genuine historical incident it lays stress on an important ethical issue. The Buddha insists that the psychological motive is more important than the outward act. Death of millions of living animalculae is taking place every minute. An earthquake, an avalanche, a tornado and the like calamities take toll of hundreds of men and animals. We are not in a position to condemn anybody for these cruelties. If a man accidentally treads on a worm in spite of the best precaution he cannot be held responsible for the loss of life entailed. But when a man kills another out of malice or greed or by way of retaliation he is held guilty both by law court and the ethical philosopher. It appears from the Pali version that the psychological attitude which is the spring of the action was not taken into account in the early Jaina canon. But we find