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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
‘Karmadānas', i.e., professions, which a Śrāvaka who wants to keep the rules of Deśa-virati, should never embrace, such as charcoalburning, letting out animals or vehicles, gardening, agriculture, trade with ivory, alcohol, poison, slaves, etc., oil-pressing, etc. This restriction is of great importance for social life, because it shows e.g., why there are so few Jaina agriculturists, and why, on the other hand, the Jainas of today are, nearly all, bankers, jewellers dealers in cloth, corn and similar harmless goods, and why they use to look with a kind of contempt down on the tanners, shoe-makers, dyers, gardeners and representatives of various other trades more or less connected with injury.
The Third Guņavrata or Anarthadanda-vrata, forbids certain harmful actions not included in the First Aņuvrata, viz., 1. Cherishing evil thoughts, 2. Indulging in alcoholic, sexual and emotional inebriation, as well as in bad talk, or in defamation, 3. practising injury and 4. giving suggestions concerning sinful actions to be done by others. This Vrata is of great practical import, because he who keeps it, cannot possess domestic animals, nor do agri-cultural nor gardening work, nor see a performance in a circus, elephant fighting, etc.
(c) The Four Śikṣā-vratas — The Śikṣā-vratas are vows with reference to certain religious performances or actions to be done, throughout one's life, in regular intervals, the duration of which one fixes at the time of taking the Vratas.
The First Śikṣā-vrata is the Sāmāyika-vrata, by which the Śrāvaka promises to perform, in certain intervals, the "Sāmāyikakriyā”. The latter consists in sitting down, under the performance of certain formalities, for about forty-eight minutes, on a clean carpet, having put on clean clothes, and keeping one's mind concentrated on some religious activity, such as reading a religious book, discussing religious subjects, meditating etc. For the duration of this time, the Śrāvaka vows to give up doing, and causing to be done, evil thoughts, words and actions, nearly coming up to the moral
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