by Christopher Key Chapple
The practice of nonviolence is universally associated with the religious traditions of Asia, especially Jainism, certain schools of Hinduism, and Buddhism. It stems from a world view which challenges Western presuppositions regarding life and spawned a thorough-going respect for humans, animals, and even plants.
The word most often used by the Jains and Hindus to express the concept of nonviolence in India is ahimsa. It is derived from the Sanskrit verb root han, which means to kill or strike or harm. This root, transformed into its desiderative form, becomes hims, which means “desire to kill or harm.” With the addition of the negative prefix “a”, the word ahimsa is formed, which literally means “absence of desire to kill or harm.” The Buddhist precepts include a different phrasing for this practice: pranatipatad viratih, which means the abstention (virati) from the transgression (atipatad) of life (prana). Both expressions, ahimsa and pranatipatad viratih, convey the most important ethical practice of the Asian world: not to harm life.
In order to understand why this practice has become tantamount to Indian religious traditions, the meaning of life must be investigated. Why is life sacred? For the ancient thinkers of India, life is seen as eternally existent: for the Buddhist and Jains, there is no creator god, only a continuation of what has been: time is beginningless. Furthermore, life, referred to as prana or jiva, is only apparently hierarchical. Each life state is interrelated and interchangeable. All life is made up of elements and passes from one form into another. The human condition is the highest, most desirable form of life, but is not necessarily a permanent condition. According to the Chandogya Upanisad (5:10), the elements of the body, when cremated, enter into the atmosphere, join with the rain, return to the earth, enter into plants, are consumed by humans, and form the seeds for new life. Hence, there is a continuity of substance between one’s old body and a future embodiment. According to some schools of thought, after one dies the impressions of the life which has passed continue and find a new embodiment. Depending on the nature of these impressions (samskara), one can achieve a “higher” birth or a “lower” birth. Hence, the life force of animals can evolve into human status; and the opposite can also take place.
Given that all life forms are part of the same continuum, the consequences of one’s actions require a great deal of consideration. The law of karma states that as you have done to others, so will be done to you, succinctly stated by the Buddha at the beginning of the Dhammapada:
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, evil follows him even as the wheel follows the foot of the ox which draws the cart.
Action (karma) in the present will make its presence felt at a later time. Through accumulation of merit, one can avoid painful experiences in the future. The most obvious painful act is one of violence; by abstaining from violent acts, one can avoid incurring a karmic deposit which will require retribution in the future, if not in this life then in another embodiment.
Of the various traditions which espoused the teaching of nonviolence, the Jaina path is the most strict in its observance of nonviolence, due to its unique biological speculations. One of the oldest of the world’s living religions, institutional Jainism was founded by the Jina (Mahavira Vardhamana) in the 6th century B.C. He is said, however, to be the 24th in a succession of Tirthankaras (literally, ford-crossers, those who have passed beyond the bondage of karma); his immediate predecessor (Parsvanatha) has been dated at 850 B.C. At the heart of Jainism is the doctrine that all existence (sat) is divided into non-living (ajiva) and living (jiva) forms. The former includes the concepts of motion, rest, space, matter, and time. The latter includes virtually all the substance of the physical universe, including what is considered inanimate in the West. Every life form, which is said to have consciousness (caitanya), bliss (sukha), and energy (virya), is grouped in hierarchical fashion according to the number of senses it possesses. Earth, water, fire, air, and vegetables, the simplest form of life, are said to possess one sense. Worms have two senses; bug, lice, and ants have three senses; moths, bees, and flies have four; water serpents have five; and beasts, birds, fowl, fish and humans are said to have six senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and thinking). In this view, man is technologically equivalent to animals and is closely akin to everything else, including the rocks. As a result of this world-view, the Jains strive to maintain respect for all forms of life.
In order to clarify how life is to be protected, the Jains outlined four types of violence: intentional, non-intentional, related to profession, and performed out of self-defense. It is hoped that no violence whatsoever needs to be committed, and to assist in this endeavor, five specific practices are listed: restraint of mind, control of tongue, carefulness on roads, removing things from roads, and eating in daylight. The first requires that one examine all thoughts to make certain that harm is not intended. The second demands attention to speech. The third and fourth have given rise to communities of Jaina practitioners who always walk with a broom to remove insects from their path, and to a ban on long-distance travel. The last rule was applicable in pre-technological society, when poor illumination in Indian households made it impossible to detect forms of life which may have fallen into one’s food. Food consumed by a Jaina must be vegetarian: all Jains, whether monastic or leading a secular life, are expected to subsist on only one-sensed beings, hence limiting their diet to vegetables and milk products. Additionally, certain professions are deemed acceptable for the lay community. These include government and farming, which are the least acceptable due to their potential for causing harm; writing, arts, and crafts, which are considered slightly less violent; and finally commerce, which is considered the least violent profession of all, provided that the goods traded are not obtained by violent means. For those who choose the life of a monk or a nun, progressively more stringent limitations designed to minimize violence are imposed. For instance, at an advanced stage of monkhood, one is not allowed to dig in the earth, to avoid hurting the earth; nor to swim or bathe, in order to protect the water; nor to extinguish fires or light a match, to preserve fire; nor to fan oneself, to prevent harm to the air; nor to walk on or touch greenery, thus cultivating nonviolence to plants. Hence, all areas of life are considered; no act for the serious Jaina can be performed without respect given to the vow of ahimsa. Most recently, Jain influence can be seen in the life and mission of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Buddhists also advocated respect for life. Their opposition against the Hindu practice of animal sacrifice, is illustrated as follows in an allegory found in Jataka tale 18:
One upon a time, a goat was led to a temple and was about to be sacrificed by the presiding Brahman. Suddenly, that goat let out a laugh and then uttered a moaning cry. The Brahman, startled by this odd behavior, asked the goat what was happening. The goat responded as follows: ‘Sir, I have just remembered the history of what has led up to this event. The reason I have laughed is that I realized this is the last of 500 births I have suffered as a goat; in my next life I will return again as a human. The reason I have cried is out of compassion for you. You see, 500 births ago I was a Brahman, leading a goat to the sacrifice. After killing the goat, I was condemned to 500 births as a goat. If you kill me, you will suffer the same fate.’ The Brahman, visibly shaken, immediately freed the goat, who trotted away. A few minutes later, lightening struck the goat and he was free to again become human. The Brahman likewise was spared, due to the goat’s compassionate intervention.
In the Mahavagga, the Buddha proclaims “A bhikku who has received ordination ought not intentionally to destroy the life of any living being down to a worm or an ant.” The Dasabhumika Sutra, a much later Mahayana text, states that a Buddhist “must not hate any being and cannot kill a living creature even in thought.”
The Lankavatara Sutra, an important Mahayana text especially linked to Zen, provides a meditation for seeing the interconnectedness of all life:
In the long course of samsara, there is not one among living beings with form who has not been mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter, or some other relative. Being connected with the process of taking birth, one is kin to all wild and domestic animals, birds, and beings born from the womb.
Throughout Buddhist history, events have occurred which affirm reverence for life. The Emperor Asoka, who in the third century B.C. united much of India, converted to Buddhism and established several laws which required kind treatment to animal, in reflection of the Buddhist observance of non-injury to living beings. These included the restriction of meat consumption, the curtailment of hunting, and the establishment of hospitals and roadside watering stations for animals. In the sixth century A.D., the monk Chi-i reportedly convinced more than one thousand fishermen to give up their work. Throughout Buddhist Asia, the practice of releasing captive animals and fish became popular. In A.D. 759, the Chinese Emperor Suh-tsung established 81 ponds where fish could be released, and several of his successors instituted similar sanctuaries, as well as periodic moratoriums on the slaying of animals.
For the Hindu tradition, ahimsa is not emphasized in the earliest Vedic texts. The Rg Veda mentions ahimsa only in supplication to Indra for protection from violent enemies. The Yajur Veda (36.18) proclaims: “may all beings look at me with a friendly eye, may I do likewise, and may we all look on each other with the eyes of a friend.” In the Chandogya Upanisad it is mentioned in a list of virtues along with austerity, alms-giving, uprightness, and truthfulness, and as an attribute for one who desires not to “return again.” The Laws of Manu, which have played a great role in shaping Hindu society, list ahimsa among the rules to be performed by all castes, along with truthfulness, non-stealing, purity, and control of senses. In regard to meat-eating, the Laws of Manu contain three separate recommendations: that only “kosher” meat may be eaten; that only meat used in ritual may be eaten; and that one should eat no meat:
Live on flowers, roots, and fruits alone which are ripened by time and fallen spontaneously. (6.21). He who for a hundred years annually sacrifices a horse sacrifice and he does not eat meat (at all) : for both of these the fruit of their meritorious deeds is the same.
Vegetarianism, not in evidence among the Rg Vedic peoples, eventually became one of the principal designators of purity, to be strictly adhered to by the Brahman castes.
The Mahabharata, the great epic story of the war between two sets of cousins, contains an extensive discussion of the importance of ahimsa. The following passages attest to the significance of nonviolence within a Hindu context:
One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Yielding to desire and acting differently, one becomes guilty of adharma.
Mahabharata XVIII:113:8
The meat of other animals is like the flesh of one’s son. That foolish person, stupefied by folly, who eats meat, is regarded as the vilest of human beings.
MB XVIII:114:11
Persons endowed with intelligence and purified selves should always behave towards other beings after the manner of that behavior which they like others to observe towards themselves.
MB XVIII:115:22
Ahimsa is the highest dharma. It is the highest purification. It is also the highest truth from which all dharma proceeds.
MB XVIII:115:25
Ahimsa is the highest dharma. Ahimsa is the best tapas. Ahimsa is the greatest gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control. Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahimsa is highest power. Ahimsa is the highest truth. Ahimsa is the highest teaching.
MB XVIII:116:37-41
The purifications of one who does ahimsa are inexhaustible. Such a one is regarded as always performing sacrifices, and is the father and mother of all beings.
XVIII:116:41
In these passages from the Mahabharata, ahimsa is extolled as the best of all actions, giving birth to all righteousness or dharma and serving as the best possible means for purification.
In the classical Yoga system, ahimsa is mentioned as the basis and the reason for all ethical practices. The commentator Vyasa defines ahimsa as the absence of injuriousness (anabhidroha) towards all living beings (sarvabhuta) in all respects (sarvatha) and for all times (sarvada). It is said to result in the alleviation of enmity in the proximity of one practicing ahimsa (Y.S. II:35). It is acknowledged by Vyasa that circumstantial exigencies might preclude the total practice of ahimsa. He gives as an example several cases. The first is that of the fisherman who only injures fish for his own survival. The second is when one vows to abstain from killing only in a special place. Another is when one observes harmlessness exclusively on particular days. In another hypothetical situation, violence could be approved because it is for the gods or Brahman. Or, like a fisherman, a warrior can justify violence as his profession. In the final analysis, however, Patanjali requires of the yogi that ahimsa be practiced in its greatest sense (mahavratam), unrestricted by caste (jati), place (desa), time (kala) or circumstance (samaya). Ahimsa here is regarded as the foremost spiritual discipline, to be strictly adhered to by aspiring yogis.
Nonviolence lies at the root of spiritual practice in the religious traditions of India, as we have seen in our brief survey of Hindu, Jaina, Buddhist, and Yogic texts. The performance of action in light of nonviolence requires, regardless of tradition, that the performer of any activity see the implications of his or her act and also reside in the vision that another person is, in a fundamental sense, not different from oneself. Philosophically, non-difference of self and other provides the basis for performing nonviolence. Within the context of the Indian quest for liberation, nonviolence provides an important step towards the direct perception of the sacredness of all life. It serves to free one from restricted notions of self and open one to a more full awareness of and sensitivity towards the wants and needs of others.
NOTES
Dr. Christopher Chapple is Assistant Director of The Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions and teaches at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is Coordinator of Moksha Community Education Center.
1. Dhammapada, verse 1. See A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), p. 292.
2. For more information on Jainism, see Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979).
3. Retold from H.T. Francis and E.J. Thomas, Jataka Tales Selected and Edited with Introduction and Notes (Cambridge University Press, 1916), pp. 20-22.
4. See Har Dayal, The Boddhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co., 1937).
5. Lankavatara Sutra, chapter eight. Translation by author.
6. See Amulyachandra Sen, Asoka’s Edicts (Calcutta: The Institute of Indology, 1956).
7. See M.W. DeVisser, Ancient Buddhism in Japan (Leiden: E.B. Brill, 1955).
8. As quoted in Hanns Peter Schmidt, “The Origin of Ahimsa” in Melanges d’indianisme: a la memoire de Louis Renou (Paris: Publications de l’Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 1967), pp. 625-655.
9. Translations from the Mahabharata by the author.