Five Vows And Six Avashyakas

Author(s): Klaus Bruhn
Publisher: Klaus Bruhn

Page 1

HERE-NOW4U :Bruhn : The Fundamentals of Jaina Ethics - Introduction http://www.here-now4u.de/eng/spr/religion/Bruhn/einleitung.html
Five Vows and Six Avashyakas
-- The Fundamentals of Jaina Ethics 1 --
Klaus Bruhn
edited by Carla Geerdes
Introduction
Until recently, Jainism was known outside India only in academic circles. Nowadays, however, closer contacts between India and other countries -- and the immediate interest aroused by a religion which stands for "non-violence" -- have produced a change. These facts prompt us to present a sort of close up view of Jaina ethics as will be seen in the sequel.
It may be added that there are many similarities between Jainism and Buddhism and that both religions sprang up at the same time in the same province of India and thus under the same spiritual and cultural conditions. The reader who is familiar with Buddhism will therefore find many familiar features when studying Jainism. However that may be, we will also have to say a few words in the present paper about Jainism in general in order to provide easier access for all readers (see Salvation, Summary, and Postscript).
A summary of Jaina ethics is usually based on the so-called "Five Vows", which may be listed as follows:
• The vow not to kill (to practise ahimsa = non-killing, as opposed to himsa or killing) . The vow not to lie • The vow not to steal • The vow to be chaste • The vow to renounce property
Here we wish not to present the Five Vows in an isolated manner, but rather to place them in a particular larger context. To this end, we will primarily deal with the six Avashyakas, in which the Five Vows occupy a prominent position. The Avashyakas are ethico-religious texts which the pious Jaina has to recite. Indeed, they are texts whose mastery and recitation are considered absolutely necessary (avashya). They form a ritual, but a ritual which is meaningful and which must be performed with due attention even though lapse into mere routine is always possible. The Five Vows appear twice: In the fourth Avashyaka they are just mentioned (and this with regard to the monks and nuns: the mahavratas or Great Vows); and in the sixth Avashyaka they are described in detail (this time with regard to the male and female lay-followers: the anuvratas or Lesser Vows). This alone would not justify our combination of the Avashyaka subject with the subject of the Five Vows (the Five Vows also appear in many other texts). However, both subjects are also internally related as will be seen in the course of our text: The Avashyakas stand largely for repentance, and repentance is largely repentance in connection with transgressions of the Five Vows.
To whom are the six Avashyakas addressed? As just mentioned, the Jaina community is fourfold; there are clerical and laic, male and female members. This fact is reflected in ethical texts only in an unsatisfactory way, however. To begin with, a distinctive characteristic of Jainism is its deference to layman. At the same time, Jainism seems to confer a less definite status upon the layman than upon the monk inasmuch as the aim is often if not generally to convert the layman step by step into a quasi-monk. Thus the explicit addressee of the six Avashyakas is principally the monk (or the monk and the layman) and only in the case of the instructions for laymen in the sixth Avashyaka is the layman alone addressed. In addition, the literature is primarily directed toward men. This is revealed in the respective treatment of monks and nuns but the tendency becomes especially clear when laymen and laywomen are at issue. The instructions to laymen are clearly addressed to men and to men only. Women are merely included through a passing reference or they are not explicitly mentioned at all (sixth
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