Abstract: Jainism upholds non-violence (ahimsä) to be the remedy for all miseries, sufferings or cruelties of life. The threat to life, for Jainism, arises from a faulty epistemology and metaphysics as much as from a faulty ethics. The anekäntaväda provides an ontological basis for the principle of non-violence and similarly syädväda can easily plead the case of biodiversity. Environmental justice posits the issue of interspecies and intra-species justice. Consumerism is based on the assumption that the universe is a collection of dead objects. Jain ecology is based on spirituality and equality. It recognizes the fundamental natural phenomenon of symbiosis or mutual dependence, which forms the basis of modern ecology. Hence, the discipline of non-violence, the recognition of universal interdependence and the doctrine of manifold aspects as all these lead inexorably to the avoidance of dogmatic, intolerant, inflexible, aggressive and utilitarian attitudes towards the world around.
