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Jaina Concept of Non-violence and its ... : 21 that a vigilant monk who is devoid of passions is considered as nonviolent even when some violence is committed by his external bodily activities. Therefore, to believe that activities constituting positive non-violence are not correct because in carrying out those activities external violence is committed is improper. It is a misleading viewpoint. Even when violence is committed if the person who commits such acts has no desire to torment any creature, and he has done it with a sense of duty, he cannot be considered as violent. Also, whatever is done carefully and vigilantly becomes least violent. Even when there is some attachment is some activity, if that attachment, too, is of noble kind, the violence committed would be minimal.
The second consideration in deciding the question of greater or lesser violence is that if there is a choice between two types of violence, we must choose the alternative that involves lesser violence. The Jaina thinkers have considered this lesser or greater quantity of violence not on the basis of number of creatures involved but on the basis of stage of development of the creatures involved. If the choice be between committing violence of thousands of one-sensed creatures and that to one five-sensed being, according to this consideration the violence to one five sensed being amounts to greater than that to thousands of one-sensed beings.
This question was raised in the time of Bhagavān Mahāvīra also. In those times there was a sect of austere monks that was called Hastitāpasa, which used to kill one elephant in a year and sustain them by eating its flesh for the rest of the year. They claimed that they are indulged in the least violence as they killed only one creature per year.22 Monk Ārdraka refuted this viewpoint by saying that this viewpoint was misleading. He clarified that killing one fivesensed animal like an elephant was more violent as compared to killing thousands of one-sensed beings. This question was considered even more seriously in Bhagavati-sūtra and there, it was said that killing one five-sensed animal like an elephant was more violent as compared to killing thousands of one-sensed beings and that killing an accomplished monk was even more violent as compared
