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Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra
The important point to note here is that sāmāyika is essentially to do with physical conduct (căritra) and so with physical restraint. Moreover, this giving up of all harmful acts is, in effect, a compression of the mahāvrata, the five great vows of the ascetic: viz. to desist from himsā, anṛta, steya, abrahma, and parigraha (injury, lying, taking what is not given, unchastity, and attachment to things). This connection is pointed out by Pujyapāda in his commentary on Tattvärtha Sūtra 7:1 (which enumerates the mahāvrata) where he states that, 'From the point of view of sāmāyika, which consists of the cessation from everything blameable (i.e. harmful) the vow is one'. 14
As I have already explained, the earliest understanding of the mahāvrata was overwhelmingly in terms of physical restraint; the sāmāyika-cāritra of the Ayāramga must, therefore, be similarly external in its range and focus. However, this very wedding of sāmāyika and mahāvrata alerts us to the probability that, with the increasing internalisation of the vrata especially of ahimsā and aparigraha (they become at least as significant as attitudes or mental events as they are as physical restraints) -, sāmāyika too will be internalised. This does turn out to be the case; the difficulty lies in deciding when - i.e. in what social and religious circumstances - it occurred.
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The term sāmāyika is also used for what is undoubtedly a very ancient lay practice,15 namely, the assumption of temporary ascetic status, for periods of up to one muhurta (48 minutes).16 The purpose of this ritual is, as P.S. Jaini remarks, to lead the layman 'voluntarily and irrevocably
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sāmāyika-caritra and so also its wider implications [JPP p. 17, fn. 40]. 14 Trans. of: sarvasavadyanivṛttilakṣaṇasāmāyikāprekṣyā ekam
SS on TS 7:1.
vratam,
15 One mentioned derisively in the Buddhist Anguttaranikāya 1.206, quoted in JPP p. 223, fn. 42.
16
See JPP p.
223.
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