Moral of non-violence & conduct
The Jainism brought new type of ethics
which influenced the greater part of Hindus. The system of worship as well as
way of life was totally different from the Vedic system of living. Jainism
emphasize on purity and non-violence. These two streams had a clergy system to
support and encourage their philosophies and therefore there were five vows of
these clergy including non-violence, truth, not to steal, abstention,
renunciation by thought, speech and action and renunciation by word and deeds.
Historians believe that the then prevailing
violence against animals and against castes was diluted by these new streams of
thoughts. Importantly these two streams provided the right to worship to common
man-
“The merciful Buddha who is true
friend of all, has taught the right doctrine to everybody without making any
distinction of any kind” Tattva
Sangraha 3512.
And most important was that these
streams were based on reasoning to satisfy the common man that religion is the
method of living according to the true knowledge, “O! Bhiksu, accept my words not
out of mere respect for me, but after testing them at the touchstone of reason,
just as gold is accepted as true by the wise after heating, cutting and rubbing
against the touchstone” Tattava
Sangraha page 3588
These two unorthodox philosophies
fought against the practice of violence against animals, against the ritual of
sacrifices against the cruelty and against other practices. The Hindus who made
the action as the main crux of morality in the society, the Jains changed it
into right conduct as the way of life. The right conduct, not only in actions
but also in thinking. Think rightly before acting something wrong. The
non-violence theory influenced so much on this race that even at present time;
Hindus believe that killing animals and sacrifice is not the right conduct.
The clear picture of Hindu religion was
seen at the time of Ashoka when the Hindu race developed art and economy and
the religion was its base. The religion was not like what prevailing at present
but the religion based on philosophical approach of logic and reasoning and the
crux of the religion was ethics.
The Porana Kaiti (Dharma rule) at the time of
Ashoka stated-
“Obedience must be rendered to mother and father
likewise to
elders: firmness must be shown
towards animals; truth must be spoken; there same moral virtues must be
practiced. In the same way the pupil must show reverence to the master and one
must behave in a suitable manner towards relatives” as mentioned in an advanced history
of India by RC Majumdar, H C Raychaudhuri and Kalikinkar Datta.
The pillar which was found related to
Ashoka time also stated-
“Happiness in this world and in
the other world is difficult to secure without great love of morality, careful
examination, great obedience, and great fear of sin and great energy,” pillar of spiritual insight.
It
is also point out that if the caste system or the religious practices in ancient
and later ancient India was disturbing and the discrimination was so large that
people wanted to change the system then there was the best time when Turks and
Afghans invaded this Hindu land. Turks and Afghans also brought their culture
and religion in this fertile land of Ganges but scholars found that Hindu
religion prevailed best even at that time-
“Hinduism could not completely absorb Islam but was in
turn influenced by it in two was. On the one hand, the proselytizing zeal f
Islam strengthened conservatism in the orthodox circles of the Hindus, who,
with a view to fortifying their position against the spread of the Islamic
faith, increased the stringency of the caste rules and formulated a number of rules
in the Smriti work.”
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