Philosophy In Jain Agams: Ātmādvaita in Ācārāṅga

'The one, whom you consider worthy of killing, is you. Whom you consider to keep under your command, are you. Whom you consider worthy of anguish, are you. Whom, you consider worthy of enslaving, is you.^[1]' This particular statement of Ācārāṅga is a natural outcome of the non-duality of the soul. There is no structural difference between your soul and mine. One, who discriminates between the self and the others, can never practice the spirituality. The practice of non-violence can never be accomplished by making distinction among souls. When the feeling of 'I and you are same', gets stronger, only then the admonition sense automatically vanishes towards violence, deception and treachery. The feeling of the non-duality of souls is an easy way for getting rid of violence. In the training of non-violence, the practice of the contemplation of soul's non-duality can provide a solution to the problem of violence. Jain philosophy considers all souls to be independent from existential point of view but in their pure nature, they all are same. They do not have any difference. This structural principle of soul's non-duality is an important dimension of Jain ethics. This is an accepted fact of Jain ethics that, one, who considers all the living beings equal to himself, never gets into the bondage of inauspicious karmas.^[2] The implication of considering all souls equal is that 'all the souls are the same as mine is'. They have structural oneness. So Jain philosophy, even after its being Nanātmavādī (believer in the existence of multiple-souls), is also Ātmādvaitavādī (monist) with a relative viewpoint.