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Non-Stealing
degree, and is said to have committed some mild offencesagainst the precept of non-stealing, he acknowledges them while reciting his Pratikramaņa Sūtra in his daily practice performed twice a day.
Exceptions
So far it has been shown that the mahāvrata of nonstealing proclaims that the monk never indulges in any kind of stealing or adattādāna, and it allows no exceptions, but really speaking this is not so, certain exceptions are accepted as legitimate in exceptional circumstances, i. e. in certain cases violation of the rigorous precept is not regarded as immoral, for example, to commit a lesser evil in order to abstain from the higher or greater evil. In this sense casuisty works as a practical guide in all the mahāvratas of the monks.
109
Under ordinary conditions the monk, as has been shown, abstains from all adattādāna; without proper permission he would not even touch a single thing (howevor trivial it may be). But in exceptional circumstances, as for example in scorching heat or biting cold in an unknown village, wherehe reaches by his pedestrian journey, he may stay in some place, mildly sheltered or completely covered just to relax a little, after the tiring journey, without even getting the permiss-ion of the owner, and is allowed to take the permission afterwards.1 The monk violates his precept under such conditions, only with a view to safeguarding his other precepts and avoiding an undue arousal of Kaṣāyas (or passions) which may even be more drastic than the trivial violation. The precept here
1. § fniam ar fami&tu ar gearùg 3⁄4ìmg ayonàar तओ पच्छा ओगिहित्तए । अहं पुण जाणेज्जा - इह खलु निग्गंथाण वा निग्गंथीण वा नो सुलभे पडिहारिए, सेज्जासंथारए ति कट्टु एवण्हं कप्पई पुव्वामेह ओम्ग्रहं ओगिव्हित्ता तओ पच्छा अणुण्णक्तए । मा वह अज्जो वई अणुलोमेणं अणुलोमेयब्वे सिया ।
-Vyavahāra. 8. 11.
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