Atonements In Ancient Ritual Of Jaina Monks

Author(s): Collete Caillat
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 71

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THE MASTERS
According to the commentaries, the role of religious superiors is exactly comparable to that of princes who govern the State. Equivalent virtues and aptitudes are thus demanded of them. These are specified, negative and positive alike, in the third lesson of the Vavahara (and the Bh 3, Ț IV').
We may assume that the most important concern ways of life, for it is not the scholars who show the way to deliverance, but those who strictly control all their activity :
siso paḍicchao vā āyariyo va na soggaim neti
je sacca-karaṇa-jogā te samsārā vimoenti
(Bh 3, 327; ye satya-karaṇa-yogāḥ samyamânugata-vyāpārās te ...).
It devolves upon the masters to look after the material and spiritual safety of their flock, more especially when they are distressed or seek to mend their ways by observing atonements (cf. Vav 2, 6 ff.). Their devotion brings them personal benefits; they hasten the elimination of their own karman; in addition, numerous honours fall to them - a secondary benefit, but one which seems to have been nonetheless much appreciated. (infra).
Naturally, low extraction, the exercise of certain arts or trades, or physical defects disqualify anyone from holding responsibilities, or even from being ordained (Vav Ț IV' 21a; Lehre § 137). The same restrictions are ratified by the Buddhists and by Indian society in general (Inde p. 70 Classique § 2369; Arth 3, 5, 30; 3, 11, 28 f.). 1 Certain feelings, attitudes and
1. And outside India,
In the Judeo-Christain tradition: Leviticus 21, 16-23.
-16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
-17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
-18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, -19 Or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed. -20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvey, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
-21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
-22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. -23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because