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time be also an adherent of another order, there were no rules prohibiting such an an anomalous position......... Very different was the case of the Jain la.y.adherent. His position was exactly the reverse in all the points just enumerated. He formed an integral part of the organisation and thus was made to feel that his interests were bound with those of his order." Hoernle rightly considers this mistaken policy of the Buddhist order towards its lay-adherents one of the main causes of the disappearance of Buddhism fro:n the land of its birth. He says the lay-followers of Buddhis n having lost their monks to whom no paramount interest bound thein, by a most natural pro. cess, relapsed into Brahmanism, in which they again found, as they had done before the advent of Buddhism not only their priests but also their spiritual directors.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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