World Problems And Jain Ethics

Author(s): Beni Prasad
Publisher: Beni Prasad

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Ethical Wholeness. It will be apparent from a review of the Anuvratas that they are interdependent and supplementary. The application of one to human relationships leads logically to that of others and in fact would stultify itself without the others. Only there is primacy belonging to the first of them, that is, non-violence. It is the foundation of all higher life. In the Jain as well as Buddhist code,it is wider than humanitarianism, for it embraces the whole of sentient creation. Its comprehensiveness, logically complete, is a further illustration of the ethical life being a function of mental attitude and outlook. Like non-violence honesty ( अस्तेय) and stoicism ( अपरिग्रह ) are negative only in appearance and really positive in their application. Together the five Anuvratas constitute a single conception of life, ethical and spiritual, a consistent loyalty to the great principle of self-transcendance, a transvaluation of values.