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344
S. B. DEO
The Quantity of Food :
The monk filled half of his belly with food, one fourth with water and one fourth with wind.690 This meant that he had half of his appetite caimed to keep him fit.
The Fourteen Impurities :
Nails, hair, living beings (jantu), bones, chaff, grain particles, pus, skin, blood, flesh, seeds, fruits, bulbs and roots were deemed impurities.
If the monk happened to come across blood, flesh, bones, skins and pus in the food then he did not eat the food, and underwent a prāyaścitta for it. If he found out living beings and hair, then he gave up that food. If he found that it contained nails, then he did not partake of the food and underwent a minor prāyaścitta for it. If he came across the rest of the impurities, then he took out those things and then ate the food.691
The Circumstances Under Which Food Could Not Be Taken:
If, while begging, a crow (kāga) happened to touch the monk, if his food was besmeared with dirt (mejjhā), if he vomited (chaddi), or if he was bound (rohana), if he happened to see his own or the other's blood (ruhira) or tears (assuvāya), or touch his body below the knees (janhuhitthā amarisam), or go by bending very low-even below his naval (ņābhiädhoniggamaņam), eat some forbidden article (paccakkhiyasevaņā), kill living beings (jantuvaho), if a crow took away food from his palm, if the food fell down on the ground from his hand, if a certain living being fell into the food from above, if he happened to see flesh, in cases of divine trouble (uvasagga), if a living being came in between his feet, if the person serving food happened to drop down the utensil (sampādo bhāyaṇāna), if the monk got calls of nature while eating food, if he happened to enter the house of a low-caste person (abhojagihapavesaņa), if he fainted or had to sit down, if something bit him, if he happened to touch the ground (bhūmisamphāsa), if bodily dirt was splashed (nitthuvaņam), if worms fell from his stomach (udarakimi), if he happened to take up something without permission of the owner (adattagahana), if somebody struck him, if the village was burnt, or if he happened to take up something from the ground
bodily cart containing the jewels of virtues to the city of self-contemplation, by greasing the axle of life with the food obtained by alms.' JAIN, C. R., op. cit., pp. 59-60.
690. Mül. 6, 72; the normal quantity was of 32 morsels, Ibid., 5, 153; the morsel or Kavala' consisted of 1000 rice-grains, Ibid., comm.
691. Ibid., 6, 65; The 'vikrtis': Ibid., 5, 155-157.
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