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916
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
The second pratimâ consists in the observance of the milder form of vows enumerated on p. 907 ante. There are seven other vows, comprising three guna and four sila vratas, which should also be observed regularly by the house-holder. The guna vratas are so called because they tend to increase virtue (from guna, virtue, and, vratas, vows); they consist in the placing of restrictions on the field of one's movements, refraining from purposeless activity, and cutting down the number of articles of daily use and enjoyment. The siksha vratas tend to increase piety and knowledge, and consist in further restricting one's movements, for certain fixed periods, within still narrower limits than those fixed in the first guna vrata, the performance of daily meditation (samayika), fasting and the service of saints.
The full description of these vratas, the manner of their observance, and the faults arising in connection with them are all minutely described in the Jaina Books; they can only be briefly touched upon in a work like the present, which is mainly concerned with the comparative study of religion.
The reason for the observance of these vows is not that our enduring of hardships has a tendency to please some supernatural god or goddess upon whose pleasure our destiny might be said to be dependent, but that self-denial is the only method of training the individual will and of purging it of its weaknesses.
The third step on the house-holder's 'path' consists in the observance of the sâmâyika meditation (see ante p. 365) three times daily, that is morning, noon and evening every day. Its duration should also be increased from
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