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"Vigais' And 'Mahāvigais' include 1. Butter, 2. Honey, 3. Wine, 4. flesh (or meat)." Jain laypersons who are purified by the true quality of a śrāvaka keep away from all these four Mahāvigais whose names begin with letter 'ma' (# ) for life long time. Others are Jains only by birth, not by deeds. They have destroyed the limit, grandeur and splendour of the word 'śrāvaka'. It is a matter of deep worry for us; these things have been adopted by Jains who have lost the Jain quality.
As far as possible, a real śrāvaka keeps the five anuvratas, three gunavratas and four śikṣāvratas. The discussion of the seventh vow bhõgõpabhöga viramana vrata contains some description of what is fit and what is unfit for a śrāvaka to eat. 1. honey 2. butter 3. wine and 4. meat are strictly prohibited there. We shall think of them later on. Let us now think of Vigais which are generally eaten.
Jain scriptures clearly do not allow monks and saints to take milk, curds, ghee, oil etc. without a special reason or condition or by exception. Only a fatigued monk or a physically weak monk or a monk excessively devoted to scriptural study or meditating can use Vigais according to the permission of the Acāryas etc. These Vigais are forbidden because they defile the mind and the body as their names suggest. Therefore, it is not proper for a
an to take ghee, milk, curds etc. in a great or excessive quantity.
1. Milk
From a scientific point of view, milk is a perfect food. Milk contains probably all kinds of elements necessary for human body. Therefore; milk is considered to be very necessary for man. There are some people who say that milk is obtained /derived from female animals and it should, therefore, be abstained from. It is like non-vegetarian food. But what they say is not true. If this is believed, then there is perhaps no person in the world who did not take milk in childhood. Really speaking, for all living beings particular to the animals, milk is the primary necessity of life. In the mamillae of every female it is produced for the nutrition of her children. The first food for every child is milk whether the child is of a lioness, a deer, a cow, a buffalo or even a woman. Milk is made for food and since infinite/biginingless times every human child has been taking milk as food. It is, therefore, unnecessary to entertain such doubts about milk. Of course, in the present times, the milk of cows and buffaloes is extracted with machines and sometimes in order to
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| SR No. | 001603 |
| Book Title | Scientific Secrets of Jainism |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nandighoshvijay |
| Publisher | Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 378 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Science, Religion, & Articles |
| File Size | 21 MB |