Aspects of Jaina Monasticism

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 43

III
THE ASAMAHITTHĀŅAS
or
The Twenty Occasions of the Imbalance of Mind
The first chapter of the Ayāradasão deals with twenty occasions of the imbalance of mind, which are as follows:
THE TWENTY OCCASIONS
1. Walking quickly (davadavacārī) without circumspection. Though the explicit reference is to walking alone, other kinds of activities are also implied. Such implication is also to be understood in the cases that follow.
2. Walking without wiping off the place with the broom (duster, rajoharana).
3. Walking by badly wiping off the place with the broom.
4. Use of additional beds and seats.
5. Reproaching or insulting one's superiors in rank (rātiņia-paribhāsī).
6. Finding fault with (the conduct or morality or intellectual competence of) one's superiors.
7. Causing injury to one-sensed beings (such as vegetation) for the sake of one's enjoyment and embellishment (bhuo vaghāie).
8. Becoming inimical. 9. Becoming angry. 10. Indulgence (pitthimamsie).
11. Repeated self-assertion (arro
in backbiting
gance).
12. Raising of new unraised disputes (ahigaraṇa).
13. Raising of the condoned and settled old disputes.
14. Study of the scriptures at prohibited periods.
Or
Study of the prohibited scrip
tures.
15. Moving with hands and feet not properly dusted or wiped off.
16. Shouting loudly.
17. Creation of dissension. 18. Instigation of quarrels. 19. Engagement in eating from sun-rise to sun-set.
20. Not preserving equilibrium of mind during the begging tour.
These occasions of mental imbalance can roughly be distributed over the first three samitis, namely, irya, bhāṣā and eṣaṇa. The number twenty here is arbitrary, because there can be many other occasions with reference to different sense-organs, objects and passions. In fact, there can be as many types of loss of self-control or self-possession as there are causes and conditions of the disturbance and agitation of the mind.
In the Digambara tradition, these imbalances are not specifically