Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

SR No.: 006567
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
Publication Year: 1972
Total Pages: 306
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 32

SECTION I
THE SALIENT FEATURES OF JAINA ACARA
"A careful perusal of the Jaina canon" remarks Prof. K. V. Abhyankar, "would show that the main theme of the canon is to define and illustrate monkhood,......".1 In other words, the canon answers the question as to what true monkhood is ? True monkhood, according to the same source, does not consist in renouncing the world and discarding the use of excellent things simply because one cannot afford it. It consists, no doubt, in forsaking the world and finding no pleasure in worldly things even though abounding in them. This type of renunciation, we find, clearly illustrated in the following lines of the Daśavaikālikasūtra :
vatthagandhamalamkaran itthio sayanani ya
acchanda je na bhuṁjanti na se cai tti vuccai || je ca kante pie bhoe laddhe vi pitthikuvvai | sähine cayai bhoe se hu cai tii vuccai ||2
It is for this type of persons that the Jaina canon defines and illustrates a rigorous course of discipline. These rules and regulations which pertain to various aspects of monastic life such as conversion of persons, acquisition of food and requisites by them, church units and officers, study, transgressions and punishments, and the like are developed to an uncomparable height. The most striking traits of these rules are that they presuppose the threefold principle of inoffensiveness, self-restraint and penance" or in the words of the rival religious sects self-mortication. The due or undue stress, for we cannot remark categorically at this stage, laid on the hair-splitting minuteness of the rules is, in all probability, with a view to keep this threefold principle scrupulously. These three main traits of the Jaina monastic rules, i. e., inoffensiveness, self-restraint and penance will follow after a brief introduction to the formation of the Jaina Order and some other relevant rules which are all helpful in the practice of the aforesaid three formulas.
(a) The Jaina Order and other relevant rules
Formation: Admission of candidates to the Order is one of the most important features of monachism. This is why the framers of
Dasu, Introduction, p. 1.
1.
2. Dasv, 2.2-3.
3. dhammo mamgalamukkittham ahimsa samjamo tavo-Dasv, 1.1.