Jainism view on Wars, Fighting for Injustice, Oppression, Freedom...

Q11. What is Jain view on wars - political, economic, religious or ethnic? How about fighting for injustice, oppression and freedom?

These are important question that we will address from various perspectives. We will look at it from Jain values/principles, scriptures, examples from history and logical reasoning so that we can use our own wisdom in any given situation and keep our spirituality intact and progressing. We are addressing this question from lay-people (shravak and shravikas) perspective.

We will talk about this in two parts. First Jainism views on spirituality to prevent situations like war, injustice, oppression or slavery and then what can we do if we are in any of such situations.

Jainism perspective on spirituality and war:

There are many references in Jain scriptures that all underpins the importance of living a spiritual, compassionate and peaceful life.

Jainism advocates and provides guidance on removing societal conditions that preludes the war, mainly reduce inequality and insecurity, overcoming our inner weaknesses and structuring our life based on spiritual awareness.

-    Ahimsa is at the core of Jainism. Ahimsa means to not hurt any living beings, through our thoughts, words or actions. It means to respect all living beings and have compassion towards all living beings, no exceptions.

-    In Sutrakritang, it is clearly mentioned that there is nothing higher than the sense of security, it says one should not fear from others and one should not cause fear to others. Accumulation of arms and weapons are considered a means of security yet these, instead of giving security, generate fear and a sense of insecurity in the party that doesn’t have them. These insecurities start a race for accumulation of superior weapon and eventually a war.

-    Lord Mahavira in Acharanga sutra proclaimed "Atthi sattham parenaparam, Natthi asattham parenaparam" i.e. There are weapons superior to each other, but nothing is superior to disarmament or non-violence. It is the selfish and aggressive outlook of an individual or a society that gives birth to war and violence.

-    Tattvartha sutra written by Acharya Umaswati (aka Umaswami) stated that mutual cooperation is the essential nature of human beings and the function of the soul is to help one another.

-    Uttaradhyayana Sutra underpins the importance of war with oneself to get rid of insecurities that runs as precursor for war and conflicts.

Ideally, we don’t want war, injustice, oppression or slavery. But what if we are in middle of any such situation? What is our responsibility and what are acceptable actions for lay people?

What can we do if we are any undesirable situations like war, injustice, oppression, slavery?

For lay people it is very important to understand the Jain principles and scriptures such that we maintain our spirituality, yet we don’t miss out on fulfilling any of our responsibilities.

Agams contains the vows (vrat) for Shravak/Shravika and for Sadhu/Sadhvis, and they are different for both.

Mahavrat is vows for Sadhu/Sadhvi and it includes complete non-violence. 

Ahimsa vow for Shravak and Shravika is called Anuvrat. Here’s the verse from yoga sastra that explains the ahimsa vow for laypeople:

સ્થૂલ પ્રાણાતિપાત વિરમણ વ્રત:-

નિષ્કારણ, નિરપરાધી, ત્રસજીવોની સંકલ્પપૂર્વકની હિંસાનો ત્યાગ

Sthuul pranaatipat viramaan vrat 

Nishkaran (without valid reason) Niraparadhi (not guilty)
Trasjeevai (2-5 sensed beings) Sankalp-Poorvani (premeditated/planned) Himsa (violence) Tyaag (avoid/give up)

At the core, it means laypeople should avoid/give-up premeditated/planned violence towards 2-5 sensed living beings, which are not guilty, and there is no valid reason.

So, for lay people, minimum violence for protection is acceptable. It is our responsibility as lay people to protect our self, family, religion, state and country and if needed we should use force or violence. None of our values/principles are meant to make us weak or prevent us from fulfilling our responsibilities. We must take the required action for protection but without any kashayas (anger, ego, greed, deceit) internally.

In history, we have many examples, such as historically very famous Acharya Shri Kalakacharya for the protection Sadhviji, King Bhamasha, Vastupal and Tejpal fought for protection of self and others. Contemporary times are very different from 2500 years ago, however, the application of Jain values/principles remains the same.

Little more recent example is of Gandhiji fighting for injustice, oppression and freedom.  During the British rule over India, British had a law that forbid Indians to mine their own salt.  On top of that, the British imposed a tax on salt which was coming from India’s own land.  Gandhiji felt this was wrong. But he did not go off in the middle of the night to break the law. His intention was not to cheat the law. Rather, he told the British that he was doing a salt march and will be mining the salt and he is willing to be arrested. He was protesting for the sake of the cause, not protesting for any other reason.

Let’s look at a more practical example.  If an intruder enters our house and we harm that individual in self-defense, then that is acceptable. But violence out of aggression or revenge is not acceptable.  If the intruder leaves and we yet go after him for the purpose of harming him instead turning him to the authority, then that is not acceptable.

Bottom line

Ideally, we don’t want war, oppression or any kind of injustice. And at an individual level, we should raise our spirituality such that we don’t introduce or escalate situations that starts the injustice or wars. However, if we are in any situation that requires us to protect self, family, religion, country then we must act but without aggression or any kashayas within.

We must follow the law of the land we reside in; we can protest the law but cannot violate the law.  We must be very mindful and honest in deciding if a war/fight is for a valid cause and not with an intention to hurt 2-5 sense living beings, personal gains or to gain more power over others.

Jainism Perspective on Condemning Others...

Q3. Why do Jains concentrate all their efforts in saving minutest bugs, yet ignore violence to human beings such as sometimes condemning other Jain sects, and considers other religion Gods as Ku-devs and Gurus as Ku-gurus etc.?

A3. This is a very perceptive question related to conduct/achar of Jain laypeople. Yes, some Jain laypeople might be carrying out this kind of behavior. However, at the same time, all of us have also witnessed Jain laypeople, who have truly internalized basic Jain values / principles and they live by those values starting with their immediate family, relatives, community, animals, plants, environment etc. Therefore, as fellow Jains, our primary responsibilities are:

• Understand, internalize and practice Jain values and principles.
• Do not take part in any behavior that is contradicting with our basic Jain values and principles.
• Understand potential root causes for such mindset and behavior and address them with integrity, honesty and humility so that it does not propagate in the future generations.

Jainism preaches Ahimsa (Non-violence) as well as Anekantvad (Non-absolutism). Now, let’s observe and discuss this kind of behavior from Jainism’s guiding principles perspective:

Ahimsa perspective:  

Jainism believes Ahimsa should be practiced through our thoughts, words and actions towards all living beings (Of one, two, three, four or five senses), in our best power. So, this explains the Jain follower’s action with “Ahimsa” mindset take extra efforts of saving a little bug’s life. However, at the same time and in the situation from this question, these same Jain followers may forget another very important aspect of Ahimsa - to follow Ahimsa through words and thoughts as well towards all living beings. Condemning other Jain sects and other religions, preachers, gurus and followers of these Jain sects or other religion is considered Himsa towards 5-sense human beings through words and thoughts.

This contradicts with the basic guiding principles of Jainism and is considered “Mithyatva” (ignorance/false belief) of that Jain follower. Most importantly, we should note that one doing the condemning might be doing so from rooted cultural upbringings, surrounding, culture, media, peer pressure etc. and not from the understanding of basic religious principles.

Anekantvad Perspective:

Anekantvad is one of the other basic guiding principles of Jainism that encourages acceptance of relativism and pluralism. According to this doctrine, truth and reality are perceived differently from different points of view, and no single point of view is the complete truth. Jainism teaches non-judgement through the principle of Anekantvad.

(Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekantavada)

Anekantvad is multiplicity of viewpoint or pluralism, Ekantvada is dogmatic viewpoint or Singularism.  It is all about how we view and form an opinion about a given object or a situation. Truth (Existent) is expressed in many ways. One cannot make a definite statement about Truth or Existent, each statement is true in its own limited sense.  To understand the nature of Existent, one requires the vision of seeing an entity from all direction, which is Anekantvad.

In regard to other religions, if these religions offer individuals a path to reducing their own kashayas (anger, ego, greed, deceit) and provide a peaceful way towards happiness, then that is a positive thing for all of us.

Again, it is important that we continue to focus on the core intent of Jainism, which is to eliminate our Mithyatva and reduce our kashayas, by practicing right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct. This way we will break free from the cycle of life and death.

If other religions, scholars, teachers, provide a means for individuals to make positive progress, then that should not be judged or condemned just because it is a different way of practicing. It is our ego in action when we make negative comments about other religions and such actions have no place in this kind of context.

Let’s reflect and learn from Mahavir Swami’s life:

Mahavir Swami was born in Kshatriya (warrior) family, fought against injustices and malaises of class-based society. He had some disciples from untouchable class and his first Gandhar (disciple) was a Brahmin. His life is an example of holistically practicing Jain values. Nowhere in his teaching or lifestyle, will we see the condemning of other religion or their gurus.

There are many such examples in recent history and there are Jain followers in today’s world who are fighting for equality in society (regardless of religious belief) either as journalists, social workers, as community organizers etc. There might be some individuals carrying out actions that are not concert with Jain values and we should be able to correct these individuals, but to assert that all Jains are involved in such non-harmonious view is not true either.

Now, let’s introspect on the potential underlying root causes for such mindset and behavior in some Jain laypeople:

• Some of the Jain lay-community practice religion based on sermons/vyakhyan from ascetics and by blindly following traditional rituals. Most of the time they do without pondering on purpose, reasons behind them. Sermons accepted by faith alone and not testing with their own intellect, reasoning/experience, results into very little internalization of Jain values and principles. Eventually, that could become a mundane daily chore and a person becomes dogmatics instead of an involved activity that brings happiness and value to their life.
• The ascetics practice Ahimsa as Mahavrat and do not hurt even minutest bugs. Some ascetics preach that to the lay community, instead of Ahimsa Anuvrat of laypeople (ref - review Q2) and how laypeople should live a life with minimum violence. If the Jain values are not truly understood or internalized, then how does one define minimum violence in their environment without understanding and internalization of the Jain principles and values? 
• Jain ascetics are mostly sectarian Jains. Some ascetics may not intentionally teach respect for other Jain sects and other religions. Sometimes in order to promote their sect, it may appear that they are degrading other Jain sects and condemning other religions. Jainism is a religion of humility and not egoist statements like, our religion is the only best or the most supreme religion. 

Hence, for the situation in this question, the traditional laypeople interpret saving a minute bug is a Jain religion and they do not have any understanding that insulting or condemning other non-Jain human being or other religion is a violation of basic Jain principles.

Jain scriptures indicate that any activities we do that helps to eliminate Mithaytva and reduce our Kashayas is considered the Tirthankara’s preaching.

In summary,

The underlying values of all religions are to live in harmony with all living beings and help each other, with that we do not have any right to condemn other religions. At the same time, if there are any non-harmonious or harmful efforts, then we all have the responsibility to act and protect, without Kashayasarising within us.

When looking at other religions / cultures / sects etc. we must think, "I may not understand what others are doing, but it may be helping them reduce their Kashayas (anger, ego, greed, deceit)." We do not know what transformation is happening inside the other person. We may not agree with it but it might be right for others.

Any activity of body, mind and speech, which removes Mithyatva and reduces Kashaya is religion for us. For example, if reading any other religion book helps reduce my Kashayas then that is fine. Reducing Kashayas makes us Jain and by condemning others, we are actually building up our ego and increasing our kashayas. We should focus on our spiritual well-being, withdraw from violence and should respect all Souls and religions.