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274
Bhagavati Sūtra
nights each, then one of a duration of a day-night, and the last one of the duration of one night only. A monk courting the pratimas frees himself of all attachment to the body and bears with perfect calm and unconcern hardships inflicted by celestial, human and sub-human agencies. He begs small quantity of food from unknown households. If he finds a man, an animal, a śramana, a brāhmana or a beggar already standing at a householder's door, he will not enter into that house for begging. During the practice of this penance, the monk is required to obey elaborate prescriptions regarding begging, intake of food and drink, speech, movement, behaviour, place of residence, etc. If in the monthly pratimās, the food intake is at a minimum, i.e., one datti (handful) per day during the monthly pratimā, two dattis during the two-monthly pratimā, three dattis during the three-monthly pratimă, and so on till the seven-monthly pratimă, the weekly course is mostly completed by fasting, with food intake reduced to a negligible quantity, by living in seclusion, and by lying or sitting in a particular posture. The monk is to be in meditation, bearing with perfect unconcern all dangers and hardships, and not usually moving except on very urgent business. The weekly course is repeated thrice. Then there is a single course of a day-night, which is to be utilised in the practice of kayotsarga in a lonely place outside the village or city. The last course is for a night only. On due completion of the pratimas, the monk acquires superior knowledge, avadhi, manahparyaya or kevala as the case may be. This is a very severe spiritual practice which can be performed only by advanced monks.
15. In Sanskrit, guna-rayaņa-sanivacchara may be re-written in two ways, viz. :
(i) guṇaracana-samvatsara which has been explained as follows: guņānām nirjară-višeşānām racanam samvatsarena satribhäga-varşeņa yasmin tapasi tad gunaracanam samvatsaram. [A penance lasting for a year and a third of the year, i.e., 16 months, which gives rise to a similar force leading to karma exhaustion.]
(ü) gunaratna-samvatsara which has been explained as follows: guna eva va ratnāni yatra sa tathā guņaratnaḥ. Guna
