Ethical Doctrines in Jainism

SR No.: 006955
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 107

IV. ĀCĀRA OF THE HOUSEHOLDER
85
passion, and so also the material prānas are affected owing to the lethargic condition consequent upon coition.
BRAHMACARYĀNUVRATA: The householder cannot relinquish copulation as such. Hence he should abstain himself from the sexual and lustful contacts with all other women except his nuptial partner.2 This is Brahmacaryānuvrata or gross form of the vow of chastity. According to Vasunandi, the householder following this vow should not succumb to the unnatural ways of sexual satisfaction like masturbation, sodomy and the like and should not copulate even with his own wife on the pious days (Astamī and Caturdaśī) of each fortnight. Samantabhadra defines Brahmacaryāņuvrata as renouncing lustful contacts with another man's wife, and as seeking contentment in one's own wife. Such an observer of vow neither enjoys another man's wife, nor instigates another person to do so. Somadeva enunciates the vow of gross chastity as conceiving all women or concubines as one's mother, sister or daughter with the exception of one's own wife. “Wine, meat, gambling, music with song and dance, personal decoration, intoxication, libertines and aimless wanderings-these ten are the concomitants of sexual passion”.? Besides, "one should be careful not to excite oneself by erotic acts, aphrodisiac potions and erotic literature. The breaches of the vow of gross chastity are:
91) taking interest in match-making, 2) sexual association with married woman, 3) sexual association with unmarried woman, 4) unnatural methods of sexual enjoyment, and 5) inordinate sexual desire. ..NATURE OF PARIGRAHA (ACQUISITION): We now proceed to dwell upon the nature of acquisition and Parigraha-parimāņāņuvrata. The most comprehensive characteristic of Parigraha is attachment, which follows as the modification and operation of Mohakarma.10 The definition of Parigraha as attachment is scientific, since it embodies the entire connotation signified by the term. It believes, in the first place, that those who have the least vestige of a feeling of attachment, notwithstanding the external renunciation of all worldly acquisitions,
1 Puru. 109. 2 Ibid. 110. 3 Vasu. Srāva. 212. 4 Ratna. Srāva. 59. 5 Ibid. 59. 6 Yas. and Ic. p. 267; Kärtti. 338; Amita. Srāva. VI. 64, 65. 7 Yas. and Ic. p. 267. 8 Yaś. and Ic. p. 267. 9 Puru. 186; Dharma Bi. 159.; Tasū. VII. 28.; Uvāsagadasão. I. 48; Srāva. Prajña.
273; Amita. Srāva. VII. 6. We have foHowed Pūjyapāda's meaning of the Aticiras. 10 Puru. 111.