Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 7

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 7
the major vows of non-violence consists of complete abstinence from causing injury to life. But in the minor aspect it permits violence in selfdefence and in pursuit of an inevitable vocation. This measure of taking the religious conduct to two different planes evinces a practical and pragmatic approach to make it relevant to life and society.
History tells us that Jainism continued incessantly, but Buddhism disappeared from the land of its birth. When India attained fredom it aspired to inculcate the old values and traditions. The Indian National Government adopted the wheel and lion symbol from Buddhism. In the middle white portion of the national flag there is the wheel symbol. In Buddhism the wheel symbolises the turning of the wheel of religion by the Buddha. The four lion-heads joined together constiutes of our national emblem. It has been adopted from the head of an Ashokan pillar found at Sarpath. These two events show the respect which the Indian people have for Buddhism even today.
Thus if we give a deep thought to our Indian ways of life, we will find that both Jainism and Buddhism have taken deep roots in Indian life not to be eliminated from any walk of life and at any point of time. Although apparently, Buddhism as a formal religion might have disappeared from India at some point of time, its spirit certainly got amalgamated with Indian life and culture. In the same way the essence of Jainism is not only confined to Jainism as a sect. It has permeated the whole Indian life and culture. Both these humanistic religions prominently manifested themselves in the thought and conduct on the medieval saints like Nanak and Kabir and the modern teachers and reformers of Indian society like Raja Rammohan Roy and Mahatma Gandhi.