The killing which is done through the careless activity of mind, speech and body is violence.

Tattvartha Sutra of Umaswati

It is good to maintain and encourage life, it is bad to destroy life or obstruct it.

Albert Schweitzer

I still believe that man not having been given the power of creation, does not possess the right of destroying the meanest creature that lives. The prerogative of destruction belongs solely to the creator of all that lives.

M. K. Gandhi

Would the system established by ancestors hold true to examination? In case it does not, I am not here to justify it for the sake of saving the traditional grace of the dead, irrespective of the wrath I may have to face.

Dvatrinshika of Siddhasen (6/2)

The Framework

The concept of cause and effect has found place in almost all philosophies. In some way or the other, every religion has generalized that good or evil action results in good or evil consequences. But, probably, Jain thinkers were the only to develop a science out of this concept, making Ahimsa the fundamental factor enveloping every activity in the conscious life.

In order to follow the path of Ahimsa, one has to first understand violence and how it functions. After defining violence and non-violence (Ahimsa) in simple terms the Jain philosophers went deeper and explained the framework of violence in details.

Space, the first fundamental is the arena of all activity. Life and matter are the objects involved in activity. Movement and inertia are the forces responsible for activity. And time is the factor measuring the sequences of every activity between two fixed points of reference.

All these appear to be simple and grossly conceivable things but the principles governing the existence and activity have been evolved at much subtler levels, which do not fall within the scope of this work. We start from the point where visible physical activities start. The only reference we refer to at these subtler levels is that life, as we see, starts with the interaction of life force (Chetan/Soul/Jiva/Atma) and physical force (matter particles even subtler than the sub-atomic particles, the Karmic particles). The mono-cellular living organisms, which are the tiniest outcome of this interaction, are much grosser in comparison.

The first interaction between soul and matter, which gives birth to the living organism also gives birth to the desire to live. The desire to live evolves into attachment towards the life sustaining factors and detestation towards the life curbing factors. This is the point where first seeds of violence are sown. It progresses with the evolution of the organism to higher levels. The attachment and detestation gradually grow into passions and cause the conscious violence.

Passions, Kashayas, are the factors that malign the soul and the feelings. Malignant feelings are the breeding grounds of violent thoughts, which ultimately are translated into action. The Kashayas are of four types: Krodh (anger), Maan (conceit), Maaya (illusion) and Lobh (greed).

Any violent thought created by each of these passions has three specific stages: conceptive, preparative and operative. Each of these stages has three medias of expression: thought, speech and action. Each of these three medias has three agencies for execution: through self, through order to others and through consent or support of others. Combined together these become 108 sub-classifications of violence and cover almost every possible type of violence that can be committed.

This comprehensive knowledge is helpful in pinpointing the malignancy and taking steps to cleanse the feelings. Any one out of these 108 sub-classes is enough to malign the soul and none of these come alone. There is a chain reaction starting with inception of just one of these. The purpose behind following the path of Ahimsa is to limit, and then stop the continuing tarnishing of the soul. It can only be achieved by striking at the root causes, the passions. It is a process of total change in attitude and does not end merely by avoiding a few of the said varieties of violence.

The avoidance of any or all types of violence is not the goal but the means in the cleansing process. As the degree of purity of soul increases it becomes easier to drift away from violence of a certain degree. Ultimately even the tiniest part of the urge to commit violence is wiped off. As a means Ahimsa is always progressive, but the moment it is made a goal it becomes just a ritual.

From these basics has evolved an applied system of Ahimsa, which has been included in the codes of conduct of the Jains. The codes for the mendicant or ascetic have been made very strict and are called Maha-vrats. Those for the worldly are comparatively lenient and are called Anu-vrats.

Ahimsa, as defined by Jains, covers widest possible field. It is also basic to all the other vows. As such, understanding and applying Ahimsa into conduct makes the following of other vows simple. Proper understanding of Ahimsa automatically gives insight into the other four conducts. Application of Ahimsa essentially covers the application of other four codes.

When the applied form of any basic principle is formulated an important factor comes into play; circumstance. This includes a variety of ever-changing features like time, place, environment, social structure etc.

In the fundamentals of Jainism there is ample scope to accommodate these ever changing features within the framework of the basic principles. But, as happens with every system, the rules have not been improvised to suit the changed circumstances. There is a need and also scope for adapting and revitalizing these applied forms without which the chances of total rejection, of even the basics, by the modern society would continue to increase.

In earlier times the reforms and experiments in applied form of the principles of Ahimsa appear to be common features. Changes from time to time were made, it appears, depending on circumstances as well as interpretations by scholars. The study of intrinsic qualifications (Mool-guna) shows these variations. Somdev and Amrit Chandra’s list of eight intrinsic qualifications includes rejection of wine, meat, honey and five types of fruits. Samantabhadra’s list shows five Anuvrats and abstinence from wine, meat and honey.

Acharya Amitgati added curb on eating during night to the eight by Somdev. Vasunandi further added gambling, hunting, prostitution, adultery and stealing to the negations. Pandit Ashadhara further added respecting individuals at five stages of purification (Arhat, Siddha, Acharya, Upadhyaya and Sadhu). He also added drinking filtered water to the list. These lists show that as per the needs of times and depending on other variables, reforms were being made in the applied form without hesitation.

It appears that with passage of time the emphasis shifted from goal to means. In process, the observance of the codes of conduct became more and more ritualistic. Instead of purifying the soul, the stress shifted towards negating the grosser acts of violence. Abstinence became the purpose. The degree of abstinence started being expressed simply by counting hypothetical number of living beings, which would supposedly be destroyed in any physical act.

The result is that we are more interested in hot but worthless debates on minor points like whether or not use of electricity and many other modern facilities is sinful. The much more alarming problems of corruption, adulteration, and dowry, cheating, etc. find hardly any place in the so called religious debates.

There comes a typical argument, from the hard-core traditionalists. “The applied form of philosophy is not religion but social rule. It cannot be justified on the grounds of philosophical principles. As such, one should always follow the rules laid down in scriptures and accepted by tradition.”

It is an age old and invalid argument born out of traditional prejudice. The philosophical truth is abstract and is a concern of individual experience. When it is applied to the social life, it has to be adapted to the predicament of the group of beings and to the level of consciousness of its individual constituents. The rules of the scriptures have to be mellowed down to attain certain amount of flexibility. The infinite varieties of species living in an elastic biome cannot be governed by a rigid set of rule.

Study of animal physiology and behaviour reveals that the nature and selective evolution has provided every living being with the means to survive and procreate in its natural habitat. The structure of a body reveals its natural habits, which depend upon its habitat. Its attitudes too depend on the requirements for survival. At this level the natural urge to survive and the natural processes of perishing are the basic and dominant factors.

As long as individual consciousness is not developed to a certain level, all natural processes are cyclic and there is a balance in nature. Every act is directed towards this natural balance. There is no need to judge the destruction of things or beings on the scale of good and evil at this point.

A simple example of nature’s balance is the life in a desert, where living conditions are very harsh. Vegetation is scarce, as also water. Still one can find thousands of species of specially adapted and interdependent animals. After the microscopic life forms, the lowest life forms are insects, on which birds, bats, many reptiles and rodents depend for food as well as water. These, in turn, are food for higher animals like fox, bobcat etc. If any species at any level disappears, those that form its food would multiply and disturb the balance.

If some new variety is introduced in some area there are chances that, if not properly controlled, it may disturb the already existing balance. When English settlers brought rabbits to Australia, in the nineteenth century, they never thought that this small, harmless animal could create any problem. The environment there had nothing to control the population of rabbits. The animals soon spread across vast areas of the continent. As rabbits get most of their moisture requirement from vegetable food, half a billion rabbits soon consumed most of Australia’s grassland and turned to consume water supplies. In 1950 scientists had to introduce a disease to reduce the population of rabbits.

At this level, if one thinks properly, the interference with the natural balance would be termed violence, although it appears to be non-violent. The measures taken to re-establish the balance should be called non-violent although they appear to be violent.

The moment a conscious being comes into existence all the concepts of philosophy, psychology, sociology etc. commence their interplay. One has to follow the dictates of many different sets of rules in a balanced way. The rules continue to change. The individual continues to progress and regress with the state of his consciousness. With the advent of consciousness, rules, individuals, groups, natural phenomena etc. and the mutual interaction between these, all become dynamic factors. Any effort to make any one or more of them static leads to distortion and disharmony.

The supporters of static traditional rules claim that efforts towards reform tend to create laxness and consequent degeneration. They forget that it is not the reform that brings laxness but the changes instigated for ulterior motives.

Mahavir himself brought about reforms in the Jain tradition he inherited, but his reforms never brought any laxness. In fact, he revitalized the traditions with infusion of healthy changes. Behind every distortion one can find a change in rules brought forth for the purpose of serving sectarian organizations, in terms of increasing the following or merely to facilitate the power of the leader of the sect.

The blind following of tradition is the root cause of laxness. The simple reason is that people bound by rules, without understanding the meaning; forget that the important thing is the discipline of mind and progress of the soul, not-the following of rules like lifeless puppets, and earning applause of the masses.

What is to be understood and put into practice is the spirit behind the codes of conduct and not just the written word, which may have lost its meaning in the present context. It should not be forgotten that the Jain system of purification is based on the quest for true knowledge. Even the term used for the liberated, Keval-jnani, means omniscient. Ignorance is not commended in Jain philosophy, as Jainism is not a Bhaktimarg (devotional path). Any biases or prejudices, caused by ignorance, necessarily fall under the definition of violence. Efforts towards reformation by unbiased analysis should not be condemned in order to blindly support and preserve the tradition.

Man is a social creature as well as an individual entity. A major part of his life is spent as a constituent part of the social fabric. As such, his social needs, responsibilities and way of life cannot be altogether neglected as long as he does not rise enough, as an individual, to detach himself from the world around him, without damaging himself.

As the social conduct is formed on the basic assumption that a mass of individuals forms the society, the moment one becomes conscious of his own good he has necessarily to be conscious about what is good for others. At this level Ahimsa is that the benefit of an individual has to be based on benefit of others and violence is that the benefit of an individual is based on harm to others.

Keeping in view the social obligations and the need for individual pursuit for purification, the code of conduct for the worldly has been further elaborated in details. To help proper observation, after understanding, each of the five codes has been subdivided into sets of attitudes. The following five attitudes help in practicing Ahimsa conduct (Tattvartha Sutra):

A	Irya-Samiti:	The attitude of careful movement.
B	Mano-Gupti:	The attitude of diverting thoughts from impurity towards purity.
C	Eshna-Samiti:	The attitude of taking care that no harm comes to self or others while exploring, acquiring and using anything.
D	Aadan-Nikshep-Samiti:	The attitude of being careful before acquiring or giving a thing by properly examining and curing it.

We shall now go into some details about each of these attitudes and evaluate their importance as well as scope of application.