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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
meditate for a fixed time, to devote a certain time to the regular study of religious works, or to the service of co-religionists etc. Several forms of austerity are at the same time recommended as strengthening and hardening one's bodily and mental powers, as e.g. the Ambila-Ayambila Fast, a kind of bread-and-water diet (excluding all milk, fat, sugar, spices etc.) and also certain Āsanas, or ascetic postures indeed do, if observed within certain limits. Of quite a different character is the austerity called Sallekhanā, or Saṁlekhanā, by which the individual solemnly resigns all food for the rest of his life, under formalities dealt with in the Avaśyaka Sūtra, the whole last chapter of which is devoted exclusively to the subject ‘Pratyākhyāna'. This form of austerity is indeed being recurred to by very pious people at the time when they feel death positively approaching
Thus, it is true that under certain circumstances, Jainism does allow the vow of starvation. But it would be wrong to infer there from that its ideal is the extinguishment of personal activity at all. Just the contrary is true. Jainism promulgates self-realization as the aim of individual life: a self-realization which, at the same time, also forms the basis of the well-being of all that lives. The achievement of this self-realization presupposes, on the part of the individual, the highest exertion of all bodily and mental powers, a constant wakefulness, and an iron will, which precisely obeys the behests of intellect, bravely resisting all kinds of internal and external temptations. More practically speaking, it presupposes a reasonable kind of self-preservation in the narrowest limits possible. There is a parable, according to which six hungry travellers came to a mango-tree and consulted as to how best to obtain its fruit. The first suggested to uproot the whole tree, as the promptest expedient, the second said that it would just do to cut the crown, the third wanted to cut some taller, the fourth some smaller branches, the fifth suggested that they should merely pluck as many fruits as they required, and the last said that the ripe fruits which the wind
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