This evening I happened to attend a certain gathering dominated mostly by Buddhist scholars and monks and when I described in my short address the sanAtana dharma as the first among the Eastern schools to proclaim ahimsA as a parama dharma, several eyebrows were raised. At the end of the summit, a venerable bhikku, also a good friend, walked up to me and expressed his difficulty in co-relating ahimsA with the pashu yajna of the veda. It is a common perception here in the West to see Vedic priests as some kind of cruel butchers and Buddha as the savior who arrived at the gory scene to preach a radical new teaching called ‘ahimsA’.
One would need to pay attention to mahAbhArata’s nArAyaNIyopAkhyAna which deals with the story of the king uparichara. A follower of bhAgavata dharma, the king is said to have used only yava for conducting a great yajna. Even during ashvamedha, he did not resort to pashughAta when it a well-known norm to resort to the Alambhana of pashu during such sacrifices:
sambhR^itAH sarvasambhArAstasminrAjan mahAkratau |
na tatra pashughAto.abhUtsa rAjaiva sthito.abhavat ||
The Lord himself declares in the same context, the greater importance of ahimsA dharma amongst others:
yatra vedAshcha yaj~nAshcha tapaH satyaM damastathA |
ahimsA-dharmasaMyuktAH prachareyuH surottamAH ||
vaiShNava schools, especially the bhAgavata school taught ahimsA as the primary dharma much before it was adopted by the jainas and the bauddhas.
On the topic of pashu-yAga, there are two approaches: of mImAmsA and of sAMkhya. According to the mata of the mImAmsakas, pashu-yAga is shruti-sammata and hence is a necessary duty both on the part of the yajamAna and also on the part of the pashu. While the yajamAna attains the adR^iShTa phala – the desire of which inspired this act, the himsita pashu also attains deva-yoni without the need for an intermediate stage of manuShya-yoni. Thus, upAdeyatva of pashuyAga is propounded by the mImAmsakas.
According to the sAmkhya school, the pashu undergoes tremendous pain during its sacrifice and this suffering of the pashu necessarily reduces the puNya earned by the yajamAna. vyAsa-bhAShya refers to this as AvApagamana. The great AchArya of sAMkhya, panchashikha discusses this phenomenon in his sUtra:
kushalaM hi me bahvanyadasti yatrAvApaM gataH svarge.api apakarShamalpaM kariShyati |
Thus, the merit gained through the yajna is lost due to pashu himsa on account of the pashu undergoing tremendous pain during prANa viyoga. This line of thought has led to the prescription of ahimsA as the mukhya dharma among all yama and niyamas. The importance of ahimsA is further illustrated through a corollary which instructs one to uphold ahimsA rather than satya in case of a conflict. As bhAgavata dharma is an offshoot of sAMkhya, it is but natural for ahimsA to attain an important position in the bhakti school. It will thus be clear that sAMkhya, yoga and bhAgavata schools taught ahimsA as parama dharma much before the advent of tathAgata.
tasmai kaivalyadhAmne pararasaparipUrNAya viShNo namaste |