Jainism in North India

SR No.: 011067
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 58

MAHAVIRA AND HIS TIMES Having left the house, Mahāvīra went through the usual career of an ascetic. He wandered for more than twelve years, resting only during the rainy season. For about the first thirteen months “the venerable ascetic Mahāvīra wore clothes." 2 After that time he walked about naked, casting aside every kind of garment. By uninterrupted meditation, unbroken chastity and the most scrupulous observation of the rules concerning eating and drinking he fully subdued his senses. He was out to neglect his body for twelve years, and with equanimity he was prepared to bear, undergo and suffer all calamities arising from any sources. Thus it is but natural that in a state of forgetfulness as this, Mahāvīra was not conscious whether or not he was dressed. There was nothing like any deliberate move on his part that he should go about naked. The robe that he was putting on during his wanderings was taken away from him in halves by some Brahman friend of his father named Soma 4 What came in the prophet's life in a more or less unconscious state of his mind was not meant to be literally adopted by his followers. There is no such rigidity visible in the canonical literature of the Jainas. In the Uttaradhyayana-Sūtra the following words are put in the mouth of Sudharman: "My clothes being torn, I shall (soon) go naked,' or
I shall get a new surt': such thoughts should not be entertained by a monk.
“At one time he will have no clothes, at another he will have some; knowing this to be a salutary rule, a wise (monk) should not complain about it." 5 In short, it comes to this, that a monk should be indifferent to all such superficialities. With all this, the general rule adopted for the discipline of the whole class was that monks should try to get on with one cloth, and if essential they may keep two.
1 "When the rainy season has come and it is raining, many living beings are onginated and many seeds just spring up Knowing this state of things) one should not wander from village to village, but remam during the ramy-season in one place"-Jacobi, S.B.E, XXII, P 180
समणे भगवं महावीर संवच्चरं साहियमासं चीवरधारी हत्या नेणं पर पचेलए पाणिपडिग्गहिए, -Kalpa-Sutra, Subodhika-Tiha, sūt 117, p 98 Cf SB.E , xxu, pp. 259, 260
Cf bid ,p 200
+: fury ATEIWA JETA-Kalpa-Sūtra, Subodhrha-mtha, p 98 Cf. Hemacandra, op ct , 2, 19
Jacobi, S.B.E, xlv, p 11
Jacobi, SBE, XXII, p. 157. "The Jaing rules about dress are not so simple, for they allot & Jama monk to go baked or to wear one, two or three garments, but a young strong monk should as a rule wear but one robe. Mahavira went about naked, and so
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