Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
The first way to commit himsa is with mental (bhava) himsa. This causes mental harm primarily to one’s self (svabhava himsa) and may be also mental harm to others (parabhava himsa). This violence in thought is always committed before action. Violence in thought, or psyche violence, (bhava himsa), is the true violence.
Mental violence to oneself can be done under when someone is in an agitated state of mind, or during circumstances that foster such states of mind. For instance, when a person is on the verge of committing suicide, he experiences extreme mental turmoil, which destroys his inner peace, contentment, joy, and purity of soul.
Mental violence to others happens when a person, through his attitudes or actions, evokes feelings of anger, fondness, or greed (just a few examples) in another person. In other words, he intentionally disturbs the mental peace (the bhava prana) of the other person.
When we intend to hurt or harm others, we give birth to kashayas (sins) such as anger, deception, pride, greed, love, and hate. Thus we always first commit violence to the self in the process.
This mental himsa is like starting a fire. It always sparks further himsa.
A second category of himsa is vaani or verbal himsa. Here, a little spark quickly becomes fire. What is in mind comes out in speech.
The third way to perform himsa is through physical (kaayaa) himsa. Here, the fire becomes an inferno, destroying everyone in its path. Here, too, the mental and verbal himsa unite with the physical to become partners. A Jain scripture, the Dasavaikalika sutra states: “No sin accrues to one who walks, stands, sits, sleeps, eats, and speaks with vigilance.”
Since mental/bhaava himsa is the most dangerous, because it can lead so quickly to other forms of himsa, a good rule is to control it so that it doesn’t spread to verbal and physical levels. Here’s an example of how the mere intention to harm (mental himsa) is can be more dangerous and harmful than verbal and physical himsa:
In a town, one butcher makes his living by going into the forest, catching and killing birds, then selling their meat. One day, he takes his vast net into the forest, spreads it on the ground, sprinkles lot of bird feed on the net and hides quietly in the bushes and waits for the birds to come and eat the bird feed. Many hungry birds show up and start eating. At the same time, an ahimsak happens to walk by and sees the birds on the net eating their food. He realizes what is going to happen to these birds. So he blows his whistle to save them; the birds are kept from being caught, and they all fly away.
Let us examine the bhaava, or mental intentions and actions of both the butcher and the ahimsak.
If we look at the butcher at the moment when the birds are hungry, he is doing nothing more than feeding them. He has not yet harmed them in any way. His physical action is that of compassion. However, his real intention is to catch and kill them. Here, his intention is bad but his action at that very moment is good. Now, let us look at the ahimsak /compassionate person. By blowing his whistle, he deprived the hungry birds of their food. His physical action is of harm, or himsa, but his real intention is to save the lives of the birds. Here the butcher is guilty of serious himsa, both from the perspective of the law of karma and according to society’s legal code, for his bad intention in planning the murder. On the other hand, the compassionate person has committed very little himsa, as his intentions are good.
Let us look at the same concept in another example from our daily life. A knife with sharp edges can be used to wound a person when it is in the hands of a robber or murderer. But the same knife can be used to save the life of a person when it is in the hands of a surgeon. The knife is the same but the users’ intentions and their actions are polar opposites. In both cases, the actions involve cutting and making a person bleed, but the robber intends to kill, while the surgeon tries to save life.
In both examples, the intension is the most important factor and so the results - reward or punishment - are different. The same principle applies in real life when justice is dispensed by the courts of law. Many a time, one is declared guilty of the crime based on the intention of the doer rather than by the action itself.
