Book Title: Half Hour With Jain Muni
Author(s): Abdul Hamiz A Baakza
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House Bombay

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Page 57
________________ garded as a desultory reader He has mastered about nine to ten languages He is an authority in some branches of Sanskrit uterature He wittely says that such all-round reading is a mental therapeutic so that mind may not be inured to onesided thinking This keeps mind healthy, fresh and open to Truth It is the demand of the palate to taste variety of food in substantial quantity, so it should be for the mind, lest it be morbid enough to have lost the savour "One's experience should be rounded off to the orbed beauty of the moon" is his favourite way of putting what moral perfection consists of There is no credit for a Jain Muni to be abstemious in his diet Jains are well known for their fasting feats A forty-day fast is nothing to them Muni Chitrabhanu believes in moderation. He does not believe in anything which does not serve any useful purpose Every one should be his own judge He for one, does not venture beyond two days He recognized the value of fasting as a means of spiritual culture This object is better fulfilled, he believes, by abstaining from all activity and not merely from food Emphasis on mental discipline is more marked in his case, it is the only deciding factor with him He favours maun-vrata or to be more accurate muni-vrata- a fast of silence The word muni is derived from man, to think and vrata means a vow One takes a vow to observe silence for a certain period Many people set a day apart 39

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