Book Title: ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02
Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies
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person should be able to win over the afflictions (parişahas) else he will get distracted during Sāmāyika. Various steps involved are enumerated below.10
1. The practitioner should make himself free from all householder duties and nature's call,
clean his body by washing his hands, feet and face or taking a bath and put on light and
comfortable cloths, tie his hair etc so that he is free from all bodily distractions. 2. He should then select a place, which is clean, free from disturbances like noise,
mosquitoes, family members or others coming and going or performing other activities
and is the place is neither cold nor hot. 3. While standing in kāyotsarga posture i.e. standing facing north and hands hanging down
and seven centimeters away from the body, legs about 10 centimeters apart; he takes a vow to be in Sāmāyika for 48 minutes (ideal or the time he deems fit) and leaves all his
mental, speech and bodily activities. 4. He then recites Navakāra nine times silently and bows his head with his hands folded
and moving them in clockwise direction three times. He performs this routine facing each
of the four directions. Then he sits in kāyotsarga posture. 5. He then recites Navakāra with auspicious (mamgala) and dedication (śaraṇam) verse;
pratikramana (ālocană) sutra, Sāmāyika pātha, Tirthamkara vanadāna and finally takes a vow to observe self-restraint during the day completes the Sāmāyika.
Normally Sāmāyika should be done individually but due to difficulty in concentrating the mind on various mantras etc in Sāmāyika, there are group Sāmāyika in special places where the practitioners recite all the verses in a very low pitch so as not to disturb each other.
As Sāmāyika has a special place in the religious activities of all Jains, tremendous literature abounds having description, holy poems, methods etc to be used. Some of them are: Bhadrabāhu-II has detailed Sāmāyika in Āvaśyakasūtra; Jinabhadra Gani wrote Višeşāvaśyaka especially on Sāmāyika, all literature concerning ethics and practice of Jains detail Sāmāyika, Sāmāyika Pātha by Amitagati and a book Sāmāyika kā Saundarya by Dr. Mukesh Shastri detailing various pāthas /poems and dedicated to Sāmāyika.
10 Kārtikryānupreksā, 353
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
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