Serial Killers

I am a serial killer. I kill a lot of life each day. Today morning while i was draining the soap water that had been used to rinse my clothes, i deluded a few ants with cascading water. Poor ants, had all been carried away in the inadvertent flood. The tiny black and harmless ants are the victims of such whimsical acts of humans, though the killing is also unintentional. Babies when put on floors look for these tiny black ants and try to play with them by wiping them off with a crushing sweep. There are creatures that are clever and dodge these sudden attacks of humans by being nimble and fidgety. Mosquitoes are very clever and they attack humans in the regions that are impossible to be reached by the arms. House flies are too quick for any swatting. If anyone thinks of making much less effort in destroying life around him, then he is a misfit in the modern world. All means of transportation is hazardous to insect life. Hundreds and thousands of insect carcasses adorn the windscreen of vehicles that evade through the fading light of the evening. Many a reptile has got trampled with the sturdy tyres of locomotives. However there still exists the following of the great 'Mahaveera", the last of the twenty-four ford-makers of (thirthankars) Jainism.

Jainism has two sects; "Digambara" and "Svetambara" (space-clads and white-clads). Of the two, Svetambara does not believe in asceticism. There are many saints still living and practicing a very austere life. As a strict Jain of Digambar sect, one should abstain from eating meat and eating any plant that's life is ceased while it has been procured for cooking. They do not consume carrots, spinach and the vegetables that grow under the earth, like potatoes and onions. They must tie a small cloth around their mouth by covering it completely for a possible inadvertent entry of insects into the mouth. It does not mean that they practice hygienic and healthy living but for saving an insect that would perish by gorging itself to the cavern of mouth. They must not travel on any modes of transportation as each acts as killers and must go only on foot wherever they wish to go. They must procure feathers of peacock to sweep the earth ere their tread, to stop treading on tiny insects. The procurement of the feather of the peacock should not be an act of plucking but visiting the places that are frequented by peacocks and waiting for them to shed their feathers and collecting them only after. The smooth peacock feather will gently push away the treading insects onto the path of the saints.

The Jain saints must abstain from undergoing any treatment through the other systems of cure like the English method of treatment. Capsules are made of using cow fat and there are drugs that have the innards of animals as ingredients. While embracing sainthood they must undergo the ordeal of their hair on the head being plucked strand after strand to immerse themselves in the act of losing sensation. Surely Jainism is a harsh religion to follow and adhere to even as principle. One even wonders at the possibilities of following all these harsh practices in the modern world. William Dalrymple features an article on a nun in his book "Nine Lives", who lives in Shravanabelagola and practices sainthood. She has chosen to end her life through 'Sallekhana', a process through one minimises the intake of food and water and in the end stop eating anything and succumbing to weakness, another harsh practice to put an end to existence. The fate of her now is not known. Such lives in their wake may create some awareness and forbid a few from crushing lives and leading life of petulance.