Basic Principles Of Jainism

Author(s): Narayan Lal Kachhara
Publisher: Narayan Lal Kachhara

Page 88

sensual look at other women. This vow differs from all others in its double formulation: positive in the sense of contentment with one's own spouse (sva-dara-santosa) and negative as avoidance of contact with the spouses of others (para-dara-gamana).
Amritachandra is definitely of the view that sexual activity involves all round himsa. He likens the act to the insertion of a hot iron rod in a tube which is filled with sesame seeds and which burns all the seeds; in the same way every intercourse kills a large number of living organisms. Every indulgence of sex-passion due to lust brings about himsa.
Enjoyment of women betakes of the nature of affliction because like fever it brings on craving and delirium, and exhaustion of the body. The passionate pleasure of the encounter can give no real satisfaction. Two reasons are assigned for condemnation of all carnal contact; that in moral sense the calm of the soul is disturbed by the increase of the passions of love and hate ; and that in a physical sense the sexual act is always accompanied by himsa.
There are five (aticharas) transgressions of this vow noted by Samantabhadra: i) a house holder should abstain from bringing about the marriages of other's children (anyavivahakarana). It is the duty of a house holder to arrange for the marriage of his children. There is no fault if one regards such marriage as ceremonies and not as arrangements of copulation, ii) toying or caressing with the parts of the body like the breasts, arm-pits of the female (anangakrida) , iii) finding pleasure in the sensual activities of eunuchs dressed in female attire, iv) excessive inclination for enjoyment of sensual pleasures (vipulatrsatichara), v) frequently visiting or having conversation or dealings with, or observing bodily attractions of, a prostitute. He who wants to observe this vow both in letter and in spirit must studiously avoid all occasions of meeting women in privacy and talking of matters which are likely to stir feelings of sexual or sensual contact.
Siddhasena Ganin has been more precise in classifying sexual intercourse (maithuna) as animate (sachetana) and inanimate (achetana). The first has reference to 1) intercourse of a man with a woman (celestial, human or animal); 2) of man with another man; it includes masturbation as well as homosexuality; 3) masturbation by a woman with some artificial phallus. The latter one (achetana) refers to acts of man satisfying his sexual desires with the statue of woman (celestial, human, or animal) fashioned in plaster, wood, stone, or leather, or in the form of a painting
All Jaina philosophers have been unanimous in condemning breach of the vow of celibacy as leading to commission of various kinds of sins. It is a sin against one's self not only because it results in loss of bodily strength but also leads to various other sins. It is a sin against the society as it disturbs code of common ethics so essential for peace in domestic life and mutual trust. A man or woman given to adultery involves himself or herself in various kinds of deceitful acts which result in the destruction of all other virtues.
Aparigraha Anuvrata
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