Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 51

Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekānta for Contemporary Life
violence, both gross and subtle. May I remain steadfast in
maintaining absolute detachment from this body. 2 Saying thus, he pulled out the arrow and, his mind at peace, died instantly and was reborn in heaven. The second man, a friend of Varuņa, was himself severely wounded in the battle. Even so he followed after Varuņa in order to help him in his resolve and witnessed his peaceful death. He died soon afterwards in the same fashion and was reborn as a human being.
Thus, the Jainas are clear in their belief that a wholesome rebirth is assured only to those who die a peaceful death and who renounce all hostility and violence. Without achieving these qualities, no amount of valor on the battlefield guarantees even true temporal victory, let alone improvement in one's spiritual life. This does not mean that the Jaina lay adherent is a total pacifist, however. A layperson, as we saw above, is given the option of countering an armed adversary in kind, with the reminder that it is proper for a Jaina not to be the first to strike. The combatant would also be asked to bear in mind the Jaina doctrine of anekāntavāda (multiple perspectives), which allows the Jaina to recognize the validity of his adversary's point of view as well. By enabling him to recognize an area of common ground between himself and his opponent, a Jaina would, therefore, be able to avoid confrontation and try reconciliation, and resort to warfare only out of dire necessity. The Jainas thus appear to have outlined a path of nonviolence that would allow the lay adherent to conduct his daily life with human dignity while permitting him to cope with the unavoidable reality of the world in which violence is all-pervasive.
The Jainas would be the first to admit in accordance with their own doctrine of syādvāda (qualified assertions) that other religions too might discuss some of these same issues. But what distinguishes the Jaina conception of nonviolence from that found in other world religions is that it is truly a personal way of
12 Bhagvat7-sūtra, VII, 9, #302 ff. (Suttāgame, ed. by Pupphabhikkhu. Gudgaon-Delhi, 1953).
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