172
ethics into the corporate, profit-making worlds; transcending despair in oneself and
ditching not only sedatives, but school; taking to the streets, instead, to protest the
twenty-first century adult world’s inaction on climate change (the Sunrise
Movements), cruelty, and oppression in general
37
.
18.8 Biological Restoration
But in a place far away and long ago, in the company of two Digambara ascetics, a
far more plausible reconstructive scenario of biological restoration cries out to the
future without drama or intrigue, data sets or jeremiads. It is simply that total galvanizing of nonviolence, ahimsa, in the moment, not in some probability factor of the
future. Its most manifest realization is that of a person who is naked, walking, during an entire lifespan, calmly describing at every juncture, in each village, the essential reality of kindness to all beings. Their enumeration, said to have numbered
875,000 injunctions, by Mahavira’s reckoning, was established in the Jiva Vicara
Prakaranam, a manuscript written in the eleventh century by the Svetambara writer,
Santisuri, who attributed life even to rocks; not just any rocks, but a labyrinth of
crystals, lava, gold, and so on:
38
The ekendriya jiva, or Sthavar Jivas, those with one
sense and four pranas, or powers, including touch, inhalation, and exhalation and a
body itself. Their six classes, according to the Jains, included rocks, diamonds, salt,
rain, and dew and fog droplets, as well as creatures living in hurricanes, tornados,
trade winds, lightning, fire of all kinds; creatures in trees (vanaspatikaya) and finally
those vegetables under the soil, like garlic and potatoes. Try not to harm them, said
Mahavira’s disciples. And especially refrain from ever afflicting the trasa jivas,
those beings with more than one sense. Such interdictions commenced with one’s
behavior toward dvindriyas, the worms.
37 See for example, “Grown-Ups Get a Scolding on Climate,” Inspired by a Swedish teenager,
students around the world on Friday will protest political inaction, By The Editorial Board; The
editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from
the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
March 12, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/opinion/climate-change-childrengreta-thunberg.html, Accessed April 1, 2019; See also, “There is hope amidst environmental anxiety, says a scholar of ecotheology,”University of Helsinki, Public Release, Dec. 14, 2018. https://
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/uoh-tih121418.php, Accessed March, 26, 2019; See
also, “Burger King is rolling out a meatless Whopper. Can McDonald’s be far behind?” By Tim
Carman, April 1 2019, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/
wp/2019/04/01/burger-king-is-rolling-out-a-meatless-whopper-can-mcdonalds-be-farbehind/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a2d3341ac836, Accessed April 1, 2019. See also “The meat
industry will be completely gone in 15 years, Impossible Foods CEO says,” by Steve Goldstein,
MarketWatch, June 24, 2020, https://finance.yahoo.com/m/22bde9f5-dab7-34d2-96167e204d78796a/the-meat-industry-will-be.html?.tsrc=applewf
38 Santisuri, Jiva Vicara Prakaranam, along with Pathaka Ratnakara’s Commentary, Edited by Muni
Ratna-Prabha Vijaya, translated by Jayant P. Thaker, Madras 1950.
18 A Cave at Taranga
ethics into the corporate, profit-making worlds; transcending despair in oneself and
ditching not only sedatives, but school; taking to the streets, instead, to protest the
twenty-first century adult world’s inaction on climate change (the Sunrise
Movements), cruelty, and oppression in general
37
.
18.8 Biological Restoration
But in a place far away and long ago, in the company of two Digambara ascetics, a
far more plausible reconstructive scenario of biological restoration cries out to the
future without drama or intrigue, data sets or jeremiads. It is simply that total galvanizing of nonviolence, ahimsa, in the moment, not in some probability factor of the
future. Its most manifest realization is that of a person who is naked, walking, during an entire lifespan, calmly describing at every juncture, in each village, the essential reality of kindness to all beings. Their enumeration, said to have numbered
875,000 injunctions, by Mahavira’s reckoning, was established in the Jiva Vicara
Prakaranam, a manuscript written in the eleventh century by the Svetambara writer,
Santisuri, who attributed life even to rocks; not just any rocks, but a labyrinth of
crystals, lava, gold, and so on:
38
The ekendriya jiva, or Sthavar Jivas, those with one
sense and four pranas, or powers, including touch, inhalation, and exhalation and a
body itself. Their six classes, according to the Jains, included rocks, diamonds, salt,
rain, and dew and fog droplets, as well as creatures living in hurricanes, tornados,
trade winds, lightning, fire of all kinds; creatures in trees (vanaspatikaya) and finally
those vegetables under the soil, like garlic and potatoes. Try not to harm them, said
Mahavira’s disciples. And especially refrain from ever afflicting the trasa jivas,
those beings with more than one sense. Such interdictions commenced with one’s
behavior toward dvindriyas, the worms.
37 See for example, “Grown-Ups Get a Scolding on Climate,” Inspired by a Swedish teenager,
students around the world on Friday will protest political inaction, By The Editorial Board; The
editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from
the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
March 12, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/opinion/climate-change-childrengreta-thunberg.html, Accessed April 1, 2019; See also, “There is hope amidst environmental anxiety, says a scholar of ecotheology,”University of Helsinki, Public Release, Dec. 14, 2018. https://
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/uoh-tih121418.php, Accessed March, 26, 2019; See
also, “Burger King is rolling out a meatless Whopper. Can McDonald’s be far behind?” By Tim
Carman, April 1 2019, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/
wp/2019/04/01/burger-king-is-rolling-out-a-meatless-whopper-can-mcdonalds-be-farbehind/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a2d3341ac836, Accessed April 1, 2019. See also “The meat
industry will be completely gone in 15 years, Impossible Foods CEO says,” by Steve Goldstein,
MarketWatch, June 24, 2020, https://finance.yahoo.com/m/22bde9f5-dab7-34d2-96167e204d78796a/the-meat-industry-will-be.html?.tsrc=applewf
38 Santisuri, Jiva Vicara Prakaranam, along with Pathaka Ratnakara’s Commentary, Edited by Muni
Ratna-Prabha Vijaya, translated by Jayant P. Thaker, Madras 1950.
18 A Cave at Taranga