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S. B. DEO
(ii) Relations with laymen:
Inspite of the fact that the devoted laymen were of immense help to monks in times of difficulty or otherwise, the relations of monks and householders were friendly but not verging on affinity and excessive dependence.
Monks were allowed to seek food, requisites and lodging from them, but no contacts of intimacy were allowed. The monks, for instance, were disallowed to eat food in the vessels of the householders (gihi), or put on their clothes, or carry their seats or make diagnosis of their illness or treat them. 142 No worldly advice or activity was ever allowed to the monk.
So also, undue pressure on laymen so as to make them enter the order was not allowed, and a monk who either initiated or confirmed (uvatthāvei) a person unwilling or unable to practise monklife, had to undergo four months' isolation (parihāra).143
(iii) Relations with nuns :
The junior monks rarely came in contact with the nuns and the rules regarding their attitude towards nuns were strict.
Monks could go to the nunnery only after the permission of their ācārya who gave it only on sufficient grounds. After seeking permission, the monk was expected to enter the nunnery in a proper manner. If he entered it in an improper manner (avihië), then he had to undergo punishment. So also, keeping a stick, or a staff, or a broom, or a mouthpiece, or any other requisite in the path of the nuns made a monk liable for punishment.144
The nuns could see monks only for the purpose of study. No common begging, or partaking of food, or initiating for one's purpose, or exchange of requisites was allowed between monks and nuns.145 Telling lot of stories at odd times in the company of women,146 or gazing at, or pondering over the forms of women was not allowed.
Taking the help of a heretic or a householder and making them stitch a sanghadi for a nun, or massage the feet of a nun was deemed a fault for which a monk was liable to punishment.147
142. Nis. 12, 10-13. 143. Ibid., 11, 84-85. 144. Ibid., 4, 24. 145. For further details, see chapter on the Order of Nuns". 146. Nis. 8, 10. 147. Ibid., 12, 7.
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