Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 571

406
Translation of
[III, 4
4. I do not belong to others, nor do others belong to me; there is nothing that is mine here: thus determined and conquering his senses, he adopts a form similar to that in which he is born (yatha-jata-rupadharaḥ).1
5-6. The (external) emblem (of a Jaina saint) consists in possessing a form in which one is born, in pulling out hair and moustache, in being pure, in being free from harm unto beings etc., and in not attending to the body (apratikarma); the (internal) Jaina (ascetic) emblem, which is the cause of negation of births, consists in being free from infatuation and preliminary sins, in being endowed with purity of manifestation of consciousness and activities, and in having no desire for anything else.
7. Adopting this (ascetic) emblem (both external and internal), at the hands of an excellent preceptor, bowing to him and (then) hearing the course of duties consisting of vows, when one begins to practise it, he becomes a Sramana (i.e., an ascetic).
8-9. (Five) vows, (fivefold) carefulness, control of (five) senses, pulling out the hair, (sixfold) avasyakas (or essentials), nakedness, not taking bath, sleeping on ground, not cleansing the teeth, taking meals in a standing posture and taking only one meal a day-these, in fact, have been prescribed, as the primary virtues3 of the ascetic, by the great Jinas; he, who is negligent about them, is a defaulter (who needs to be reestablished on the correct path).
10. That preceptor, at whose hands they accept the (ascetic) emblem, is known as pravrajya-dayaka (i.e., the teacher who initiates them into the ascetic fold); the remaining ascetics, who help to reestablish them in the right course, when they have committed certain defaults, are called niryapaka.
11-12. When the monk is carefully conducting (his) physical activities, if there is a default, to him is then prescribed a (lustral)
1. It means that he should give up everything including clothes and remain naked; this is the excellent type of Jaina asceticism.
2. appaḍikammam occurs here, in gatha 24, and also in 28 without the negative particle. Reading the two gathas side by side the sense is clear that a monk is not to pay attention to, caress and decorate his body in any way. prati and pari are often interchanged in Prakrit and sometimes phonetically represented by padi. So more conveniently and accurately the form should be derived from kr with pari. a-prati-ky is not altogether wrong, but the sense becomes restricted. pari is preferable as seen from the use of parikarma in gatha 28.
3. For the detailed discussion about primary virtues, see Müläcära of Vaṭṭakera, chapter 1.