Jaina Acara Siddhanta aur Svarupa

SR No.: 006747
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Devendramuni
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 88

Jaina Acara: Siddhanta aura Swarupa
different lineage must have been more brilliant, more talented than otherwise. Marriages be fixed when nine limbs of the body should be properly developed which occurs not before adolesence. It is clear from such prescriptions that child-marriages and those in old age were a taboo.
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The fourth quality is fear of sin. What hurts merit is sin, or what makes the cloth in the form of self dirty is sin. What degrades the soul is sin. Sin is the consequence by which the soul is bound fast. What causes apprehension and horrification is sin. A householder may not save himself from sin but he can certainly try to purify his thoughts so as to lessen the force of sin. He who repeats sin ad-infinitum is unredeemable. Such incorrigible souls are doomed. He who is tempted to sin but repents may be redeemed. Fear of sin is the fourth stage of spiritual development. To fear sin and to fear after having committed a sin are two different things. He who sins shall be punished in one way or the other. There is none that can protect a sinner. Kŝamāśramana says that mere voracious reading does not make a man wise. The wise is one who desists from sin. Sin is a beast which must ever be kept at an arm's length.
The sixth quality is not to speak ill of anybody and more specially of the administrative head, his ministers etc. A religious preceptor's censure is bad. He who condemns others is of faultfinding nature. He sees no merit anywhere.
Lord Mahavira says that censure is like chewing the flesh in the back. The Buddha says that he who censures others gathers sin in his mouth. The Islam religion likens it to prostitution. Repentance can wash off adultery but censure can be excused only if the censured wills it.
Ministers and other government officials should not be censured because any talk against them will impair the nation as a whole and secondly because it may hurt you. The government has power to crush rebellious individuals directly or indirectly.
A householder is also called 'agari' and 'sagari' because they mean the person who stays in a house. This is the seventh stage. Your house must be in an inhabited locality and not in a lane where you have no light and enlivening wind. Everybody must keep his house perfectly clean; faeces, urine, expectoration and the like generate insects and also diseases. Cleanliness invites gods to reside there. Neither ascetics nor householders shall tolerate things lying helter-skelter. They must be properly housed. No house should have many gates. Gates for entry and exit must not be unnecessarily many. Care must be taken to close all doors at night for fear of burglary.
The ninth quality is keeping good company. Good and bad company always leave their marks behind. Lord Mahavira advises us to shirk the company of the ignorant and illiterate vagabonds. The Buddha also says that if you keep company of inferior persons you impair your own