Heart of Jainism

SR No.: 011099
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publication Year: 1915
Total Pages: 365
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

Page 263

THE JAINA ASCETIC
237
former amusement and pleasure women afforded them when they lived in the world (Itthīņaii puvārayāiin puvakiliyāi sumaritae); they must not, for similar reasons, eat or drink 1 to excess, or partake of too highly spiced dishes (Ņätimapāņa bhoyana bhoi); nor must they live in the same building as a woman, a female animal, or a cunuch (Itthi pasu pandaga saisatāi sayaņā saņāiii sevitāe).
All these rules mutatis mutandis apply to nuns.
The śloka that sums up the whole vow and its clauscs runs thus :
The vow of chastity is inaintained by not sitting on seats previously occupied by women, female animals or eunuchs, and by not living in their vicinity, not participating in exciting conversation about women, not remembering former delights, not looking at a woman's form, not decorating one's own person, not eating or drinking to excess, or partaking of too highly seasoned food.'
This Jaina vow seems limited to negative chastity, which shudderingly avoids its fellow creatures, lest they should prove occasions of stumbling, and it appears ignorant of the sunlit purity that so delights in its walk with God on the open road of life, that it cannot be bored with nastiness.
The last great vow (Aparigraha vrata) consists in re- v. Aparinouncing all love for anything or any person. The defini- graha tion of it may be translated as follows :
Having no possessions consists in relinquishing greed for anything; if we think that a particular thing is our own, the mind is agitated by greed.'
In the Jaina scriptures the vow is held to exclude all likes and dislikes in regard to sounds, colours, or smells, as well as people. In short, the way to maintain this vow is to be indifferent to anything our senses can tell us.
This fifth vow of the monk foreshadows what the condition of the Siddha will be, when all his powers are entirely shrivelled up.
1 It will be remembered that no Jaina, lay or ascetic, may ever drink wine.
vrata.