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JAINISM
light, less obscuring leśyās (mild whitish shades, through yellow and violent red, down to smoky tones-as we have already seen) whereas major sins bring in much darker stains (dark blue and black). The worst offense possible, according to the Jaina view, is the killing or injuring of a living being: himsā, "the intent to kill" (from the verbal root han, "to kill"). Ahimsā, "non-injury," correspondingly (i.e., the infliction of no harm on any creature), is the primary Jaina rule of virtue.
This clean-cut principle is based on the belief that all lifemonads are fundamentally fellow creatures-and by"all" is meant not only human beings, but also animals and plants, and even the indwelling molecules or atoms of matter. The killing even accidentally of such a fellow being darkens the crystal of the lifemonad with a dye of deepest hue. That is why animals of prey, which feed on creatures that they have killed, are always infected with leśyas very dark in shade. So also men who engage in killing professionally-butchers, hunters, warriors, etc.: their lifemonads are completely without light.
The color of the monad-crystal indicates the realm of the universe, whether high or low, which the individual is to inhabit. Gods and celestial beings are of the brighter hues; animals and the tortured inmates of hell are dark. And during the course of a lifetime the color of the crystal continually changes according to the moral conduct of the living being. In merciful, unselfish people, inclined toward purity, self-abnegation, enlightenment, and release, the crystal continually brightens, the lighter colorings coming finally to prevail, whereas in the selfish, heedless, and reckless-those doomed to sink in their following birth either to the tortures of hell or to the lower realms of the animal world where they will feed upon each other-the darkness of the crystal thickens into black. And according to its color, the life-monad ascends or falls (quite literally) in the body of the Universal Being. This literal-minded, gentle doctrine of universal vice and virtue was evolved by an ascetic, self-denying, saintly group of ren
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |