Harmless Soul

Author(s): W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 43

Early Jainism 29 seems to mean that householders will only benefit from giving alms if they have no intention of benefiting from them: only alms given with the understanding that the gift is not merit-making are merit-making.72 There is also an ambiguous verse in the Dasaveyāliya Sutta which may suggest that the ascetic should not even accept alms which he knows to have been given for the purpose of obtaining merit (perhaps itself a reflection of the monks' awareness that it is possible to make use of lay misconceptions about the result of giving).73
None of this, however, need seem so paradoxical if it is remembered that the Dasaveyāliya Sutta is a text composed by and for ascetics, and reflects their wariness of any kind of social intercourse. Thus Dasaveyāliya 5.1.100 (see above), rather than teaching a doctrine of motive or intention, simply reflects the monks' concern lest they themselves may come to believe that they are providing, directly or indirectly, something in return for alms, and that they might thereby encourage householders actively to seek them out, or follow them, in an attempt to obtain merit. Such behaviour would inevitably bring them into closer contact with lay life, with its concomitant temptations and himsā-fraught relationships; when possible, it was far safer, therefore, to accept only from those expecting nothing in return. This attitude, enforced by rules of monastic discipline, ensured that it was difficult, if not impossible, for any community of monks, as Dixit remarks, 'to forge special links with any community of householders'. 74
72 Cf. Anguttara Nikāya IV, 60-3, where it is said that the lowest motive for giving alms is with thought of reward in the next life. Quoted by Gombrich 1971, p. 252.
73 See Das. 5.1.49: asanam pānagam vā vi khāimam sāimam tahā|| jam jāņejja sunejjā vā punnatthā pagaim imam ||
Schubring translates this, referring to other verses, as: 'When a monk knows or is informed that food (of any kind) was prepared for the purpose of acquiring merit, he should refuse it', etc.
74 Dixit 1978, p. 5.