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Ahimsa in Jainism: how far can non-harm be taken?

Anand Pillai Contributor
· 4 replies
Animals & environmentIndian#ahimsa#jainism
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I grew up next door to a Jain family in Hyderabad. The grandmother wouldn't eat after sunset (to avoid harming insects attracted to light), and they avoided root vegetables, since pulling them up kills the whole plant and the many small organisms in the soil.

Jain monks take this further. Svetāmbara monks carry a whisk to gently sweep insects from their path, and many cover their mouths with a cloth. Ahiṃsā, non-harm, is the first of the five great vows.

The Jain view is that all living beings, down to one-sensed beings like plants and even earth and water bodies, have souls. Total non-harm is impossible while you're alive; the aim is to minimise it as far as possible.

As an environmental scientist, I find this both inspiring and puzzling. Can such a strict principle guide environmental ethics? Or is it only possible for renunciants?

4 replies

  1. Arjun Iyer

    Fellow

    Gandhi was deeply influenced by Jain thought, especially through his friend and mentor Shrimad Rajchandra. He turned ahiṃsā from a personal discipline into a political method. So it has already been shown to work outside the monastery, at least in one domain.

  2. Priya Raghavan

    Contributor

    What I admire is that Jain ethics combines strict non-harm with anekāntavāda, the doctrine that reality has many aspects and no single viewpoint grasps it fully. Strict in action, humble in belief. That's a good combination for environmental ethics too.

    Helpful · 1
    1. Anand Pillai

      Contributor

      Priya, I hadn't thought of anekāntavāda that way. Strict in action, humble in belief is a description of good science too.

      Helpful · 3
  3. Reza Tehrani

    Contributor

    In environmental terms, the most interesting feature is the idea of minimising harm rather than avoiding it entirely. That's a practical, graded ethic: you can't live without harm, but you can always reduce it.

    Helpful · 2

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