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FASTING UNTO DEATH ACCORDING TO THE JAINA TRADITION 63
and disciple have proclaimed the refusal of food, and the dying man solemnly renounces three sorts of aliments (out of the four which, in the Jaina phraseology, form the normal meal). He gives all his belongings away, even his unnecessary religious paraphernalia. Henceforward, he is outside the Community.78
Then, the final purifying rites take place: the dying man absorbs potions that should act as purgatives and sedatives. 79 Whereas the assistants engage in helpful rites (Bh 44-45), the dying man renounces the four sorts of food: he will thus also abstain from all liquids. He asks for forgiveness, and himself forgives (Bh 47-49). He listens to his master's discourse, for the guru's words are like a beverage of immortality. The guru assists and instructs his disciple, 80 recalling the fundamental tenets of the Right Faith, reminding his pupil of the legendary saints who have died this wise man's death; 81 and he helps him to keep his mind absorbed in auspicious meditation.
When he passes away, the monk who has followed this path can attain Deliverance either immediately, or after his third rebirth.82 The layman is reborn in blissful heavens. Whether the dead man was a religious or a lay-follower, the consequences of the bad deeds which had been heaped up during ages are dispelled in a moment. 83
These prescriptions are certainly very far from the stern, terrifying rules, which are laid down in the Ayar.84 Preparation for death is milder in the Painņayas, and it has been considerably shortened. Nevertheless, the preparatory purification, the spiritual dispositions required from the dying man do presuppose previous
78 Bh 34-39; Kamptz, p. 19. Cp. the sati distributing her jewels, throwing her household utensils into the funeral pyre (n. 8).
79 Bh 40 foll.
80 anusatthim dei gani-vasaho, Bh 52.
81 Bh 52 foll. On the help that can be derived from the evocation of heroic deeds, Gonda, Remarks on Similes in Sanskrit Literature (Leiden 1949), p. 79 foll.
82 S 117, etc. The number of rebirths mentioned is sometimes seven (Kamptz, 21). 83 S 115-116, etc. (Kamptz, 22).
84 The rules laid down in the Painņayas seem to have remained in force, the case being, ever since (infra 65). Cf. A. N. Upadhye, in M. M. Potdar Commemoration Volume ['Jainas and Jainism', 157-175], 170.
