Is killing ever justified?
Jainism, like Hinduism, teaches that nonviolence is supreme religion. However, our belief in reality points out that it is impossible to avoid all violence. For example, when we breathe, innumerable tiny living organisms are hurt. Thus Jainism teaches us to avoid intentional violence of all kinds including the killing of human beings and other animals, and to minimize the violence of all other kinds. Jainism also tells us that when we indulge in any kind of violence, our own thoughts and feelings are adversely affected. This is self-directed violence which is not good for our mental and physical welfare. In addition to intentional violence, Jainism describes three other kinds of violence. These are subsistence-related violence (the violence in cooking, cleaning, etc.), business-related violence and adversary-related violence. A layman can not avoid these three kinds of violence completely. However, subsistence-related violence does not imply that one can kill animals for food, business
