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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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occupation or the apparatus, or wiping them badly, using big residences and seats, humiliating the elders, being inimical to the elders, killing living beings, getting angry frequently and quickly, backbiting, giving out doubtful statements, raising pacified quarrels, accepting food from the besmeared hands of the donor, not cleaning the hands and the feet after returning from easing nature, studying at odd times, creating new quarrels, studying loudly at night or using the language of the householder, bringing about a rift in the gaña, taking food frequently, and not properly following the rules of begging.250
The avoidance of these faults was essential for proper concentration and proper meditation which a monk had to practise daily.
Sajjhāya (study) :
Out of all the rest of the items of daily routine, study formed a very important article of routine in the life of the monk.
We constantly get references to various monks and nuns who had studied the eleven Angas (ekkārasa angāi ahijjaī).251 That there were debates between the monks of rival sects is also proved by the debate between Suka and Sthāpatyāputra.252 It is remarkable to note that a wide latitude was allowed to the disciples regarding asking difficulties as is attested by the question-and-answer form of the Bhagavatī which depicts the conversation between Mahävira and Goyama Indabhūi.
nswer form of garding asking difficulties that a wide latitude
Proper Time for Study:
It has already been seen that the first and the fourth porisī of the day were deemed fit for study.253
But on some occasions study was not allowed. The following were such occasions254 :
(1) ukkāvāte - the fall of meteors, (2) disidāghe - when the quarters are ablaze, (3) gajjite -- when there is thunder, (4) vijjute - when there are flashes of lightning,
250. Smo. p. 37b. 251. Nirya. p. 32; Vivāga. p. 80; Nāya. p. 42, etc. 252. Näyā. pp. 76 ff. 253. Uttar. 26, 12.
254. Than. p. 475b; some of these in Acar. II, 1, 3, 9 (pp. 96-97) "On the appearance of a beast used in agriculture, a frog, a cat, a dog, a snake, an ichneumon, or a rat, the reading of the Veda must be intermitted for a day and a night"--PHEAR, India According to Manu, 1.A., Vol. IV, (1875), p. 132.
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