in defence of his kingdom, but would prevent one’s fighting with a lunatic, or a blind man who had hurt one unintentionally. The vow also forbids the killing of weak creatures like mosquitoes and any other troublesome insects, and prohibits acting as ‘agent provocateur’.
The man who takes this vow must avoid five faults in the treatment of animals: he must never tie an animal up too tightly; beat it unmercifully; cut its limbs; overload or overwork it; or neglect to feed it properly.[1]
The vow is infringed by planning to kill any one, even if the evil purpose be never carried out. It also forbids animal sacrifice, the Jaina arguing that, if mokṣa be attained by sacrifice, we had better sacrifice our fathers and mothers! If an animal is in pain, it is not permissible to kill it in order to end its sufferings, for who knows that it will not suffer worse things in the next life?
The reason the Jaina give for their horror of killing (hiṁsā) is not, as some say, the fear of being haunted by the dead animal’s ghost, but the realization that every jīva has two bodies, Kārmaṇa and Taijasa, and also a third which may be Audārika (i. e. human or animal) or Vaikreya (i.e. a demi-god or a hell-being). Every jīva (save a Siddha) forms round it through its karma a body, which is called its kārmaṇa body, and also another invisible body, taijasa, which at its death will enable it to assume a new form; these two unseen bodies are indestructible and loathe being separated from the third body, which is destructible, be it audārika or vaikreya. If, therefore, we destroy a living body, it is like destroying the beloved home of the taijasa and kārmaṇa bodies.
The actual words used in taking this first vow are, in the case of Sthānakavāsī Jaina, mixed Gujarātī and Māgadhī, and might be translated:
- ↑ It would surely seem advisable to quote these five faults in the publications of the Indian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
