________________
152
Injuring one-sensed beings (A)
Necessary (E)
ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
Deliberate
Killing for food, trade,
In defence of For the main
i. body,
ii. property and iii. country.
tenance of law and order.
HIMSA
Sport
Jain Education International
Injuring the remaining (higher) types of living beings (B)
I
Due to carelessness Implied in the struggle (C) for existence
(D)
Wanton (F)
Slavery
Accidental
In the treatment of burns, wounds, etc.
In the employment of men and animals for the purposes of trade.
Sacrifice
etc.
The layman, very naturally, is not expected to avoid injuring the one-sensed beings, nor can he refrain from all other kinds of injury
Vivisection*
*It may be taken as established, as the result of the researches carried out by Sir J. C. Bose, that vivisection is quite unnecessary, and that the same purpose can be served by studying the conditions of plant life. It is true that plant life is also living matter, and that plants and shrubs are capable of feeling pain and shock. But the householder cannot avoid all forms of himsa (the causing of pain) at once. He certainly aspires to escape from it altogether when he reaches siddhahood, the stage of final liberation, but till that coveted seat is attained he must choose the lesser forms of evil, and avoid the greater and more grievous ones.
It is not to be supposed that all forms of himsa imply an equal degree of sinning and evil karma. The harm is to be measured with regard to the nature of life that is destroyed, the rule being that the higher the scale of existence involved the greater the sin, and vice versa. The reason for this is to be found in the fact that the destruction of life does not always result in an equal degree of hard-heartedness or cruelty of disposition. The vegetables are unmoving, and to the outward senses appear to be quite lifeless. Naturally, no hard-heartedness can be associated with their destruction, till at least they are perceived as endowed with life with the mind's eye. As we rise higher in the scale of being, we find the two-sensed, the three-sensed and the four-sensed types enjoying motion and showing clear indications of life, so that their deliberate destruction cannot but be associated with the deadening of something of that element of love, tenderness and sympathy which a living being feels, or should, but for the deadening of his tender nature, feel for another living being. The case
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
