Religion and Culture of the Jains

SR No.: 002009
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 123

THE PATH
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means adoration, recitation and contemplation of the divine attributes and godly characteristics which became manifest in the persons of the twenty-four Tīrthankaras or Jinas. The fourth duty, vandanā, is paying prostrating obeisance to the Arhats, the Siddhas, and the worshipful ascetic gurus. Both stuti and vandanā are aspects of devotion towards the ideal ones, practised out of one's own humility and gratefulness, with the object of keeping the mind free from impure or unbecoming thoughts. Sāmāyika is the fifth duty which the ascetic performs at least thrice daily, in some undisturbed secluded spot, calmly and happily, withdrawing wandering thoughts and concentrating them in the meditation upon one's own soul, its attributes and modes, so as to accomplish a state of equanimity. The last is kāyotsarga, that is, practising complete bodily abandonment for sometime daily, whereby he tries to relinquish all sense of attachment to the body and the things connected with it.
He cultivates and observes the ten noble virtues, the ten differential of the dharma, namely, forgiveness, humility, uprightness or straightliness, truthfulness, greedlessness, selfs control, mortification of flesh, renunciation, datachment, and continence. The householder also adores these virtues and tries to cultivate them as much as possible, but the ascetic becomes simply imbued with them; he cannot but make them part of his being. The twentyeight basic and primary properties (mūla-guna) of a Jaina ascetic comprise the five great vows (mahā-vrata), the five "cares' (samiti), the six essential duties (āvaśyaka), the five-fold abjuration (of indulgence in the pursuits of the five senses), nudity, abstinence from taking bath and from brushing the teeth, sleeping on bare ground, on a slab of stone, plank of wood or dry grass, periodically pulling the hair of the head and face with own hands, taking food whilst standing out of one's own hands, and taking meals only once a day, about midday.