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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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time as they were unable to procure rice-soup (śālyodana) for their guru. A devotee of the monks came to know of this, and from the next year he began to grow rice in his field. When the monks came there, the devotee thought that if only he were to offer rice to the monks, then they would not accept it thinking that it was specially prepared for them. Hence, the devotee distributed rice to all his relatives and asked them to prepare and offer rice-soup to the monks. Now, when the monks went on the begging tour, they heard several people talking about the specially prepared rice-soup, and the children saying, "O mother, give us the soup prepared for the monk!". Knowing this, the monk did not accept that soup.
Thus the monks were to be very careful about the adhākarmika food. Subtle differences are given about it, and it is sometimes difficult to grasp the proper point behind them.
Not only eating ādhākarmika food, but accepting an invitation for it, going to attend such meals, entering the house to accept such food, and forwarding one's alms bowl for that purpose, were taken to be transgressions of ideal conduct.463
The reasons behind the non-acceptance of adhākarmika food were that it was against the Law of the Jinas, that one transgression led to another and other monks also copied it, that adhākarman led to mithyātva (wrong belief), and lastly that the adhākarmika food being generally prepared for guests, etc. contained lot of ghee or oil which led to either illness or breaking of self-control by the monk.464
Various stories in the Pindaniryukti refer to the non-vegetarian habits of the mass of the people around the monks. It was but natural, therefore, for the monks to inquire about the nature of the food and to verify whether the food offered was of pure nature or otherwise. If a monk got a profuse quantity of a certain article of food which was not the normal food in that country, and if only a minority of the people in the town offered it to him out of respect, then the monk had a good ground for doubting the purity of the food and he made inquiries about the nature of the food offered. Due to this inquiry from the monk, those who were of a simple nature gave out the facts, while in the case of others the monk came to know about it from their facial expressions.465
463. Ibid., 182. 464. Ibid., 183-88.
465. Ibid. 204-05; An illustration showing to what extent this inquiry can be taken by foolish monks is furnished by the story of a certain monk who inquired about the place from which rice was brought. The lady offering it did not know about it and she asked him to go to her merchant-husband. The latter said that he brought it from Magadha.
BULL, DCRI.-37
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