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XXXIV : CANDRAVEDHYAKA PRAKĪRŅAKA
twelve types of penance (Tapa), five vigilences (Panca--samiti) and three self-controls (Trigupti)'.
In Mūlācāra, Vattakera has attributed these characteristics to the master (Ācārya) - Skilled in gaining and giving (Knowledge), learned in the meaning of scriptures, earning fame due to his glory, ever-ready to practice the monastic rules, speaker of acceptable and appropriate speech, serious, insurmountable, brave, promoter of the faith, tolerant like the earth, with cool brilliance like the moon and calm and grave like the sea?.
In Pravacanasāroddhāra, too, we get the mention of thirty six characteristics of the master in three different ways.?
About the greatness of the masters it has been said that by serving the masters the living being (the disciple) can not only gain glory and fame in this world but also the holy divine birth and the supreme enlightenment in the next. (32) Further, it has been added that not only the living beings of this world but also the gods residing in heaven, leaving their seats and beds, come to bow to the masters. (33–34)
Taking the obedience of the master as more important than renunciation and penance, it has been said that anyone who does not obey the master wanders in the world indefinitely even while practicing many a fast. (35)
Ibid, verse 527.
2 Mülācāra, verses 158, 159. 3 Pravacanasāroddhāra, Devacandra Lālbhāi Jain Pustakoddhāra, verses
541 to 549.
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