Yogashastra of Hemchandracharya

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Surendra Bothra
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 28

न यत् प्रमादयोगेन
जीवित - व्यपरोपणम् । त्रसानां स्थावराणां च तदहिंसाव्रतं मतम् ॥ २० ॥
Meaning: Ahimsa (the vow of non-injury) is put into practice when one does not destroy the pranas (vital constitutents) of Trasa (mobile) and Sthavara (immobile) jivas even through oversight.
Explanation: The ten pranas (vital constituents) are the sense organs of touch (body), taste (tongue), smell (nose), sight (eyes), hearing (ears), mind power speech power, body power, the activity of breathing, and life span.
These pranas constitute very essential part of the life or the jivas and to destroy any one of these pranas or inflict injury on the jivas is to commit violence. Though the jiva itself can never be destroyed, the destruction or the separation of the Pranas which it has embodied makes it suffer from pain and that is why the destruction of pranas is known as violence. When one neither hurts nor supports hurting of any of the pranas of any of the jivas, through thought, speech, or act, the vow of ahimsa is said to be observed.
प्रियं पथ्यं वचस्तथ्यं, सूनृतव्रतमुच्यते ।
तत् तथ्यमपि नो तथ्य-मप्रियं चाहितं च यत् ॥ २१ ॥
Meaning: The second major vow of truth consists in speaking what is likeable, beneficial and true. The speech which is true in substance yet injurious and unpleasant in effect would be untrue in
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