accrues equally whether they kill the smallest or the greatest jīva, say: ‘Therefore since we must acquire sin, let us kill an elephant,’ and so get as much as possible for their money.
In connexion with Ahiṁsā the lecturer whom we have before quoted gives a derivation for the word Hindu which is perhaps more ingenious than ingenuous:
‘Hindus were not those who originally lived on the banks of the river Indus. Hindus were those from whom hiṁsā was away. Let us not misunderstand words. Let us interpret them correctly. It is those men who are the slaves of taste who say that Hindus were those who lived on the banks of the Indus. We, Jaina, call Hindus those from whom him or hiṁsā is du or dūr, i.e. away!’[1]
ii. Asatya or Mṛiṣāvāda.Though Hiṁsā is the greatest of crimes, the Jaina also recognize seventeen other sins, and the next worse of these is untruthfulness, Asatya or Mṛiṣāvāda. They divide the way ordinary folk talk into four classes: they may tell the truth; or they may tell absolute lies; they may occasionally make use of white lies; or their conversation may be a mosaic of truth and lies. Now a Jaina is only allowed to speak in two ways: either he must tell the truth; or, if that be too difficult, he may avail himself of white lies; but he must neither lie, nor speak the half-truth half-lie that is ever the blackest of lies.
The sad story of King Vasu shows the power of absolute candour and the fall that follows any declension from it. Vasu was known as ‘the Truth-teller’, and his throne was established on veracity; indeed, so strong was the power engendered by his absolute fidelity to truth, that his throne was supported by it alone at a great height from the ground. Two men named Parvata and Nārada came to him to ask him to tell them the exact significance of the word Ajā, for one held it to mean ‘grain’ and the other ‘goat’. The king’s paṇḍit had told him that it meant ‘grain’, but instead of saying this, the king, endeavouring to please both parties, gave the word a double signification, saying- ↑ Lāla Benārsi Dāss, loc. cit., p. 75.
