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VASTRAISHANA: FIFTH CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
Food and water are the basic necessities to sustain life. The first chapter discusses that subject. The second chapter contains details about place of stay, the third about movement and the fourth about language. After this the subject discussed in this fifth chapter is exploration for dress. Therefore this chapter is titled Vastraishana' or 'Search for Clothes'.
✦ A seeker uses clothes to protect his modesty and practice discipline as long he does not reach the spiritual level of unclad practices. However, no matter what dress he wears he should avoid attachment and fondness for it.
In the opinion of the commentator (Churni) keeping clothes is allowed for covering private parts and protecting the body from afflictions like cold and stings of insects. Therefore the ascetic who is desirous of wearing dress has to be aware of the codes of acquisition (exploration, acquisition and consumption). If that is not done the acquisition and wearing of dress may cause him to commit numerous faults.
✦ Clothes are of two types-bhava vastra (mental clothes) and dravya vastra (physical clothes). Bhava vastra includes acquiring the eighteen thousand attributes of brahmacharya (celibacy). In other words the sky and the cardinal directions are the bhava vastra. Bhava vastra is not sought as alms.
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✦ Dravya vastra are of three types (1) Ekendriya nishpanna (produced from one sensed beings such as cotton, arktool or fibres of swallow-wort, bark of tirid tree, alsi or linseed fibres, jute etc.),
आचारांग सूत्र (भाग २)
( ३०८ )
Acharanga Sutra (Part 2)
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