Jain Journal 1999 01

SR No.: 520133
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 42
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 7

JAIN JOURNAL
Vol. XXXIII
No. 3 January
1999
THE CONCEPT OF ŚĀSTRA-DĀNA IN JAINISM
HAMPA. NAGARAJAIAH Books on Jaina discipline have prescribed the ideal path of the layman and has laid greater emphasis upon the secular aspects of the ritual. In the Jaina social organisation every householder is expected to carry out six duties :
Śrāvakācāra, book of layman's discipline, of Padmanandi, has listed the six duties of a laity (Ācārya Jinasena, Somadevasūri, Samantabhadra, Amitagati, Vasumandi and others have laid down similar prescription).
devapūjā gurūpāsti svādhyāyah samyamas-tapah
dānam ceti grhasthānām șaț-karmāņi dine dine The Sat-karmas : the six acts prescribed for every laity are1. Devapūja : Worship of the Tirtankaras, the omniscient
spiritual teachers or builders of the ford. 2. Gurūpāsti : Listening to venerate teachers. 3. Svādhyāya: The study of the scriptures. 4. Samyama : Restraint including observance of the eight
basic restraints (mūlaguņas) and minor Vratas
pertaining only to lay people. 5. Tapas : Austerity, especially fasting on holy days.
6. Dāna : Charity, including giving alms to mendicants. Of the above Śrāvaka-Vratas, the sixfold sets of practices which the householder were to perform as regularly as possible, Suādhyāya and Dāna, the study of scripture and charity are complimentary. These acts are contemplated to encourage the quality and capacity to engage in dāna, the act of giving. The act of dāna was conceived to refrain the lay votary from his too much involment in labha, obtaining, bhoga enjoyment and upabhoga, repeated enjoyment. The act of dāna-vrata, the vow of charity has two faces, the spiritual and the cultural. It implies an objective of socio-economic discipline. For over two and a