ABSTRACT
Nonviolence, orahim.sa , is the first and preeminent vow in Jainism. The community eventually divided into two dominants sects, due to a few key differences, one of which is the proper clothing for a mendicant, from which the sect names derive. Jainism offers one of the most detailed accounts of living beings among all global worldviews, describing various life forms and substances, their non-one-sided existence, and karmic entanglement. The Jain universe (loka) is populated by infinite beings existing in a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth who are categorized by the number of senses—from one through five—with which they experience the world. In the Jain biosphere, every embodied being is subject to four instincts of food, competition, reproduction, and the need to accumulate resources, and these instincts cause unavoidable harm to other beings and minute organisms. The early concept of violence as physical action and mental possessiveness is replaced in later texts with five vows meant to curb harm.
