Purushartha - Siddhyapaya

Acharya Amrit Chandra Suri 

Translated by Ajit Prasada 

Exposition of Purushartha-Siddhyupaya.

61. Those who desire avoiding Himsa, should, first of all take care to renounce wine, flesh, honey, and the five Udumbar fruits.  

62. Wine stupefies the mind; one whose mind is stupefied forgets piety; and the person who forgets piety commits Himsa without hesitation.

63. And wine is said to be the birth-place of many creatures which are generated in liquor; those who are given up to wine, necessarily commit Himsa.

64. Pride, fear, disgust, ridicule, ennui, grief, sex passion, anger, etc., are forms of Himsa; and all these are concomitants of wine.

65. Flesh cannot be procured without causing destruction of life; one who uses flesh, therefore commits Himsa, unavoidably.   

66. If the flesh be that of a buffalo, ox, etc., which has died of itself, even then Himsa is caused by the crushing of creatures spontaneously born therein.

67. Whether pieces of flesh are raw, or cooked, or in the process of cooking, spontaneously-born creatures of the same genus are constantly being generated there.

68. He who eats, or touches, a raw, or a cooked piece of flesh, certainly kills a group of spontaneously-born creatures constantly gathering together.

69. Even the smallest drop of hone in the world very often represents the death of bees; the fool who uses honey is a great destroyer.

70. Even if one uses hone which has been obtained by some trick from honey comb, or which has itself dropped down from it, there is Himsa in that case also, because of the destruction of creatures of spontaneous birth born there.

71. Honey, wine, butter, and flesh are extreme fermentations. Those with vows would not eat them. Therein (are born) creatures of the same genus.

72. The two Udumbaras (Gular and fig) and fruits of Pipal, Pakar, and Banyan are birth places of mobile beings. Therefore Himsa of those creatures is caused by eating them.

73. Again, it they, the above five fruits be dry, and free from mobile beings, on account of efflux of time, even then in using them there is Himsa, caused by the existence of an excessive desire for them.

74. Those pure intellects, who renounce the above eight things, which cause painful and insufferable calamity, render themselves worthy of Jain discipline.

75. Those, who, even after listening to the doctrine of Ahimsa, are not able to renounce the Himsa of immobile beings, should at least give up the Himsa of mobile beings.

76. Renunciation of nine-fold commission, by self, through agent, and approval, by body, speech, and mind, is Perfect Renunciation (Autsargiki Nivritti). Imperfect renunciation (Apavadiki Nivritti) is of various kinds.

77. householders possessed of appropriate articles of enjoyment have to injure a limited number of one-sensed beings. They should desist from causing destruction of other immobile beings

78. Those who have been impressed with the highest Ahimsa-elixir, which leads to immortality, should not be distressed on seeing the improper behavior of the ignorant.

79. "Sacred religion is very subtle, and there is no wrong in committing Himsa for the sake of religion." (People) should not allow themselves to be thus deceived in the name of religion, and should ever kill embodied beings.

80. Never entertain the wrong idea that religion flourishes through gods, and that therefore everything may be offered to them. Do not kill embodied beings, under such perverted judgment.