Religion and Theology

Jainism is an ancient branch of Hinduism which rejects the existence of a God and creation but advocates a deep respect and compassion for every living thing. Those who adhere to this way of life are called Jains. A well-known scholar of Jainism is Mahavira, who promotes a path of strict asceticism and ahimsa (non-violence) to all living beings as the means to real emancipation. What is Ahimsa

Ahimsa is a term in the Ancient Indian language gotten from the root words himsa which means violence and A which means not or negative. Therefore, if translated directly ahimsa means non-violence (A-himsa), and literally Ahimsa means evading violence.  Thus, Ahimsa may be defined as a practice of non-violence towards every living being or the act of evading violence (by every possible means) towards every being.

Notion of Ahimsa as it appears in Jainism.
The Ahimsa concept dates back to 800 B.C.E., it emerged from the all souls are equal doctrine which opines that everyone wants to live, nobody wants to die. Ahimsa is a principle that the Jains practices and preaches, it is the core of their religion. Ahimsa is not only directed towards all human being but towards everything in nature.

Thus, Ahimsa is the foundation of the Jain ethics or philosophy. In short, Jainism considers Ahimsa to be the absolute religion while himsa is considered to be source of all the evil and miseries in the world. It is therefore incumbent on every Jain to practice Ahimsa for their spiritual advancement.
The teaching of Ahimsa is not only limited to obvious physical acts of violence or wars but also to the violence in the minds and hearts of man, lack of concern and love for nature and fellow humans. Jains ancient text explains that the actual harm does not define violence as it may not be intentional. It states further that, it is the absence of empathy or compassion and an intention to harm that makes an action violent. That is, if there is no violent thought there could never be any violent action. The rigid emphasis of Jainism on Ahimsa makes the religion special and exclusive. In Jainism, Ahimsa is not seen as a mere human sympathy it is empathy i.e. an ability or the urge to identify oneself totally with someone elses or other living beings feelings or pains.

The values of the Jain religion
The values of Jain religion are based on five basic virtues in which Ahimsa is the first and foremost. It is also the core of their belief because every other virtue circles round it. Others virtues are commitment to truth, celibacy, non-proprietorship and non-stealing.

Practical consequences of Ahimsa on Jains
The philosophy of Ahimsa puts a restriction on the choice of professions of Jains, in that, Jains are not permitted to pursue any professions that involves killing, suffering or molestation of living things in any form. Examples of which are Farming, hunting, butchering.

Jains are known to always go out of their way to ensure that they clear away all living organisms that their own movement may endanger. Jains do not kill nor do they torment or overpower anyone or anything. Jains either wear a simple loin cloth or no clothes at all. They possess a non-violent reaction to every violent thought. They abstain from from hunting, meat eating, animal fights and every other practice in which animals are subjected to cruelty. They eat during the day and cover their mouth during the night to avoid unintentionally swallowing of insects or germs.

The practice of Ahimsa generally makes Jains compassionate toward every other being which makes them live an ascetic life, not hurting, harming or killing any living thing. The Practice of Ahimsa also makes them to have a deep respect and love for every being.

How Jains seek to protect all life
Jains seek to protect all lives by doing away with every action of violence towards other being, thus every action of a Jain is directed towards avoiding injury to all living organism, either through physical, mental or verbal violence as much as possible. They protect and preserve lives by ensuring the urge to identify oneself totally with other beings and the whole universe in general. In short, Jainism aims at the welfare of not only man alone but also all living beings.

Distinction between Jiva and Ajiva
Although, Jains do not believe in God but they believe that the purpose of life is to attain Kevala which means to bring back the grandeur of the soul. According to Jainism, there are two eternal principles of reality which are Jiva and Ajiva. Jiva refers to soul and consists of infinite identical spiritual units while Ajiva refers to matter in any form which includes time and space. A bound Jiva is linked with karmic forces since Jainism understands karmic force to be a matter while a liberated soul is pure, has peace coupled with a perfect knowledge. Jiva is usually described with mindfulness, life, immaterialness, and space extension. The size of the soul and the body it a Jiva occupies is believed to be the same. Both Ajiva and Jiva are everlasting they were not created neither were they born and will never stop existing. Jains believes that the whole world is filled with Jivas ensnared in Ajiva and that any contact between the two causes the Jiva to suffer, thus, every human being possesses jiva which suffers due to its contact with ajiva.

In conclusion, Jainism is a religion of universal love, friendliness and compassion. It teaches that every individual is indebted to the universal society of all beings. Thus, Jainism offers a far better alternative to Darwinian formula of survival of the fittest.