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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
161 “To a mendicant who is little clothed (acela),114 and firm in control (parivusië), it will not occur (to think): My clothes are torn (parijuņņe), I shall beg for (new) clothes, I shall beg for the thread (suttam); I shall beg for a needle (süïm), I shall repair them or stitch them; I shall put them on (parihissāmi); I shall wrap myself in them (pāüņissāmi)."
-Ibid., I, 6, 3, 1 (JACOBI, p. 57). "Know further, that after winter is gone and the hot season has come, one should leave off the used-up (garment of the three), being clad with an upper (santaruttare) and an under garment, or with the undermost garment (omacelaë), or with one gown (egasāde), or with no clothes (acele) - aspiring to freedom from bonds...”
-Ibid., I, 7, 4, 1 (p. 69); I, 7, 6, 1 (p. 71).
-Also, Sūtrakrtānga, 2, 1, 56 (p. 354). "To a naked (acela) monk, the thought occurs ... I cannot leave off the covering of the privities. Then he may cover his privities with a piece of cloth (kadibandhanam dhārittaë).”
Ācār. I, 7, 7, 1 (p. 73). "The various outward marks (linga) (of religious men) have been introduced in order that people might recognise them as such .... Now the opinion (of the Tirthankaras) is that knowledge, faith and right conduct (nāņa, daṁsaņa, cāritta) are the true causes of final liberation (and not the outward marks)."
-Uttar. 23, 32-33. “ 'My clothes being torn, I shall (soon) go naked', or 'I shall get a new suit', such thoughts should not be entertained by a monk. At one time he will have no clothes, at another he will have some; knowing this to be a salutary rule, a wise (monk) should not complain about it.”
-Uttar. 2, 12-13. From all these citations it is clear that the monk was asked not to be very particular about the use of clothes. The chief motive behind his use of clothes was to cover the privities or to protect himself from severe cold
114. It is interesting to note that later commentators explain 'acelatva' as the use of a few and used clothes, and not as complete nudity-See Thän. comm. pp. 467b-468b: "Just as a man wearing a tattered and old garment is called naked in the popular sense of the term, in the same way, a monk wearing less garment, which is old and tattered is called Acela. A beggar also uses such clothes, but the monk uses them on account of religious considerations."
fişat cela acela'-JSB, Vol. 12, No. 2, p. 31. BULL, DCRI.-21
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