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132
ĀYARO
who were independent,
The former used to take care of their bodies, while the latter did not. The latter did not take medical treatment, even when they suffered from diseases. It seems that this difference in practices came about in the post-Mahāviran era. In the beginning Bhagavān Mahāvira prescribed that munis should not undergo medical treatment. This was possibly because of two reasons -- non-violence and nonattachment to the body.
In medical treatment many an occasion arises when causing of violence becomes necessary. A medical practitioner causes violence as a part of treatment and this has been clearly brought out in aphorism 142. There is no denying that use of certain medicines will cause violence to worms etc.
Attachment to the body is also a form of acquisitiveness. A sadhaka practising non-acquisitiveness should be nonattached even to his own body. One who has given up attachment to his body and is completely indifferent to it, and who is in complete unision with his own soul, does not desire medical treatment. He leaves bodily affliction to take its own natural course. He endures it considering it as a result of his kar ma. He looks at life and death with equanimity and as such does not struggle for life nor try to avoid death. That is why, he never thinks about medical treatment.
There was a change in this line of thought during the post-Mahāviran era. At that time, two categories of sad - hanā came about. In the first one, a medical treatment, in which no violence was caused by the medical practitioner, was permissible.
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