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impossible to lead life of a true monk. Bhikhanji, unsatisfied with the answer, left his Guru, in the town of Bagdi in Marwar State (Rajasthan).
Agreeing with Lonka, who protested against the religious practice of offering worship to the images, Bhiksu contented that the Acaryas of the Middle Ages wrote commentaries in which they interpolated the principles of image worship and devotional religion as a means of self purification on the path of salvation. The Acaryas also interpolated in the commentaries their own views on benevolence emphasizing the worth of charity and social service as indispensable acts for the accumulation of punya or merit leading to a higher spiritual life. Bhikhan asserted that charity and social service are not helpful to the path of freedom.
3.1 Literature
Unlike Lonka, Bhiksu has lot of literary work to his credit. His works are also available to us. He has written a treatise on nine tattvas, a poem on anukampa, on dayā, dāna, ahimsā, on the conduct of the monks etc.
Bhikhanji in his book, "Acārā-ri-coppayi" has strongly criticized the food habits of Sthānakavāsī monks. According to him, many of them, especially the senior monks consumed excessive quantities of food ignoring the needs of other monks who were junior to them. The monks, who distributed food, discriminated between the recipients. Bhikhanji's primary charge against the monks was that they ate excessive food and undertook fasts with the single objective of enjoying delicious food, which they got from laymen.
V.G. Nair, a critique of Bhiksu, in his book "Jainism and Terapanthism" says "Bhikhanji's allegation goes to show that he was not probably given sufficient quantity of food to appease his hunger either because of the less quantity of alms which the sadhus could collect from lay devotees in consequences of the food famine that prevailed in Marwar or it may be that Bhikhanji was deprived of a portion of his legitimate share in punishment for his reactionary views on Jainism and his outburst against the Samgha. It seems that the problem of discriminated food distribution among the sadhus was the primary cause of his revolt and departure from the sthānaka."4
Muni Nathamal (presently known as Acārya Mahāprajña) in his book Acarya Bhiksu: The Man and His Philosophy writes "neither Raghunathji nor Bhiksu ever imagined that the Jain
4 V.G.Nair, Jainism and Terapanthism, p. 22
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STUDY NOTES version 5.0
