Vinay Sutra And Auto Comentary On Same

SR No.: 002451
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: P V Bapat, V V Gokhale
Publisher: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute
Total Pages: 134
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 13 MB

Page 40

( xxxix )
done by a Bhikṣuņi. However, asking for an ordination (upasampad) is done in a meeting where the Bhiksupis are prominent; but the formal affairs of an ordination are to be done in a joint meeting of the Bhiksus and Bhiksunis, where a bhikṣu does the official work. The intervening obstacles are to be declared in a meeting of the Bhiksuņis but acceptance of holy life (brahmacarya) and giving samvṛti (sanction of holy life)* to the same is to be given in both the Sanghas. In the case of a woman, there is a third stage coming in between pravrajya and upasampad. That stage is called the stage of a learner (śikşamāṇātva) for a period of two years. un-married girl can accept this stage when she is eighteen and a married girl when she is ten.2 The Sangha of the Bhiksuņis has to give this permission before ordination. For two years, the woman has to observe six major rules and six minor rules. The major rules are :-.
An
28
(i) She is not to go alone on a path; (ii) she is not to go (alone) across a river; (iii) she is not to touch a man; (iv) she is not to sleep in the same room with a man; (v) she is not to act as a go-between; and (vi) she is not to conIceal what is censurable.
The minor rules are :
(i) She is not to accept gold; (ii) she is not to shave off hair on private parts; (iii) she is not to dig up earth; (iv) she is not to cut off green grass; (v) she is not to taste anything that has not been offered to her; and (vi) she is not to relish anything that has been stored up.
The final consent for ordination is to be given only after these rules are observed, after the obstacles are narrated to a confidential instructor (rahonuśāsikā), and to the Bhikşuni Sangha, when she receives permission for holy life. She receives upasampad from both the Sanghas of Bhiksus and Bhikṣuņis. All this is to be done when she actually asks for these stages.
Sutra 586. 28-29. See the paper referred to in note 9 above.