Acharya Tulsi
The word ‘Shastraparigya ‘is a combination of two words- ‘Shastra’ (arms) and ‘Parigya' (assessment of one’s ability). Arms are of two kinds—material arms and emotional arms. Material arms are materials that are being used to make weapons. Emotional arms is the person's non-restraint self. In direct words emotional arms means violent feeling.
‘Parigya’ also has two forms—‘GyaParigya’ and ‘PratyakhyanParigya’, ‘GyaParigya’ helps one to know and ‘PratyakhyanParigya’ helps one to deny or discard negative traits. Shastravivek (conscience regarding usage of arms) is yet another term assigned for it. If ‘ShastraVivek’ is defined clearly then it means ‘no arms must be produced, nor should they be bought, nor should someone be killed by them’. In short it means—do not be armour. As long as a person remains armour violence is caused.
Self-Restrain is the Assurance
In Stone Age man used to use stones as arms. The arms made of wood and iron were manufactured later. The development of weapons gradually led to atomic age. In the coming ages there is a possibility of creating subtler and more lethal weapons than atomic weapons. Lord Mahavira has said -अत्थिसत्थंपरंपरेण, नत्थिअसत्थंपरंपरेण|
The tradition of violence goes on through arms. In non-violence there is no possibility of running any tradition. A policy of tit for tat can be followed. Non-violence is disarmament, restrain is disarmament, what possible violent response could be there against non-violence and restrain?What is restraining? One’s control over mind, speech and body is what restrain is. The discipline that is followed by one is restrained. The entire world is stepping ahead towards non-restrain. The problems encountered at the international level are mostly due to non-restrain. Without finding its solution no other problem can be solved because a problem doesn’t have any beginning nor an end} problem is solved here and another is already on its way. In such a critical situation if there is any assurance then it lies in restrain. Violence can only be controlled by it.
Two Forms of Shastraparigya
Shastraparigya is a small word. Its interpretation is somewhat intense. To reach that intensity is not possible for every person. From this point of view it can be shed light upon from different dimensions and it has many levels of interpretation. A person comes in contact. He is given a lot of information on leading an ascetic life like to undertake long journey on foot, kesh loch (to strip one’s hair by using hand and not any instrument), not to drink water at night, to sustain through begging. Such initial rules are being told to him. If a Buddhist comes then he is explained about equilibrium, ability to bear or tolerate, to treat profit and loss equally, meditation and such other important factors are defined. If a person is an ardent seeker of religion and philosophy then he is taught the essential lessons of Atmabad(existence of soul), Karmabad. (Importance of action), Syadbad, compassion, charity, amalgamation of different religions and so on.
In the context of ShastraParigya it can be defined in two ways. Not to kill someone, not to hurt someone and so on are the physical forms of weapons that need to be avoided or discarded. If subtly Observed then anger, pride, illusion, temptation, animal instincts and other sinful activities are dreadful weapons. Assessment of such arms is extremely necessary.
An Angry Person Causes Harm to Himself
A violent person uses both gross and subtle weapons. He is under the impression that his weapons kill another person. But a killer first kills him. Without killing oneself before it is not possible to hit someone. A person shows anger.
A person gets angry. His anger drives another person angry or agitated is not mandatory. A person getting angry tries to cause harm to that person. But if he doesn’t get excited then no harm would be caused to that person.
One who gets angry he remains agitated deep down. At the level of body he trembles, high blood pressure, cardiac problem and so on are the diseases that he gets as a gift therefore— आयंकदंसीअहियंतिणच्चा |A person who fears the ill-consequences of anger must refrain from anger and such negative emotions seeing the possibility of harm caused by such traits. Such a person may or may not do well to others but at least he would not cause harm to himself. There are eight negative traits that have been considered a sin. One may overcome them if inspired by the thought of one’s own welfare. A person who follows penance for his own welfare never gets demoralized. A person gets depressed only when he enters spiritualism inspired by his vested interest.
Speaker is Always Benefitted
I give discourses. Thousands of people listen to my discourse. It is not so important that the listeners carefully listen to me. It is not even important that they turn religious, listening to me.
If someone doesn’t listen to me, doesn’t understand me and doesn’t change one’s lifestyle, why should I be depressed for that? I have read—
नभवतिधर्म: श्रोतु: सर्वस्यैकान्ततोहितश्रवणात् |
ब्रुवतोनुग्रहबुध्द्यावक्तुस्त्वेकान्ततोभवति ||(All the listeners listening to words of wisdom cannot become religious. A speaker speaking unconditionally or with non-attachment surely gets benefitted.)
If the listeners are not benefitted then how on earth the speaker would be benefitted? This logic doesn’t function here. The listener has his own role to play and the speaker has his own role to play. The listener would certainly be benefitted if he follows the words of advice and works on them. The speaker speaks without any self-interest.His speaking in itself is a penance. If he is driven by the desire of getting famous or respectful then his speaking ceases to be a penance.Whether he gets respect or not but he surely gets deprived of the welfare caused out of giving discourse.
Question is not of Calculation but of Understanding
A master sends his servant to a doctor. He goes and brings the doctor along with him. It consumes a lot of time. The master asks him the reason of his being late. The servant said, “I have done a lot of work and come.” The master having asked him to give him a list of activities he had accomplished, he says, ‘I had to bring the doctor. If the doctor had advised to give a message then a messieurs would have to be called. It is even possible that the doctor’s medicines might fail and the patient dies. For that a white cloth would be required to cover the dead body (Kafan), I have also brought it along with me.”
The master says, “Why did you indulge in such inauspicious thoughts?” The servant replied, “Lalaji (Sir) I am not so foolish to roam around repeatedly for the same job.” The master sits down holding his head. Who could have understood the logic of the servant and for whom would it be effective or useful?
The essence of this anecdote lies in the fact that our conscience must always remain active. If we do something it must be governed by our conscience and if we say something it also must be governed by our conscience. The conscience is the only factor that can prevent a person to be armour or using arms for that matter.
Two Kinds of People cannot Observe Spiritual Penance
There are many people in this world whose conscience never gets activated. Without awakened conscience a person can never turn religious. Lord Mahavira has said that there are two kinds of people in this world who cannot observe religious penance. These two kinds of people are sad and hedonistic—'अट्टाविसंताअदुवापमत्ता'| A sad person remains miserable. A person imbued in misery cannot look within himself. As long as the situation of witnessing oneself doesn’t arise no religiousness can emerge in his life.
Mistakes are caused -by those who are hedonistic. A person imbued in hedonistic pleasures starts ignoring his responsibilities as well. He hardly gets time to contemplate over spiritual factor like religion. His aim in life doesn’t transcend the physical layer. The person living at the level of body turns materialistic. To consider matter as the base of holding one’s body, to accept the utility of matter, to consider matter as everything is to play hide and seek with the truth. When a person steals glares from truth he gets involved with unnecessary violence.
Be it in the field of politics and society, whether it is a problem of religious contradictions or of family, violence has spread its influence everywhere. The more it is taking deeper roots the more the need for disarmament is felt. The voice of disarmament is rising from the International podium in the present scenario. It is a good opportunity for the religious people if such an opportunity is taken advantage of and the consciousness producing arms is transformed then the fear of arms can be eradicated from the mind of human beings.
