ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 210

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the practitioner being "free from the memories of the friendly attachment27." In terms of attachment to wealth, one part of the process of voluntary death is in the "...intermediate phase of renunciation... [when] he gives all his belongings away.28 "In terms of attachment to loved-ones, the practitioner is not surrounded by family, but rather, monastic assistants.
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"... the saints who ordain or cause the saints to undertake this vow in a prescribed way, are called 'Expiation/holy death preceptors (niryāpakas).
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The Head-Saints have advocated the presence of 48 saints when a saint undertakes the vow of holy death. They let him undertake the vow of holy death in a proper place and, then, perform various duties as described below:
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Four saints arrange and address the visitors to the saint.
Four saints take care of the saint in the night while awake. Four saints judge the situation of the country and public. Four saints tell the religious stories to the outside visitors. Four saints refute the alien doctrines through debates.
STUDIES
Kalghatgi, Jaina View of Life, 1969; p.190.
Caillat, Fasting Unto Death According to Ayārānga-sutta and some Painnayas: pp.62-63.
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STUDY NOTES version 5.0
Four saints serve the mortifier saint to raise him, to get him seated and so on so that there may be no difficulty in observance of restraint.
Four saints cause him to listen to religious scriptures.
Four saints cause him to take foods as prescribed by Acaranga (Book on Monastic Conduct).
Four saints arrange for the potable drinks for him.
Four saints try to protect him.
Four saints remove the filthy excretions of the body of the saint.
Four saints remain at the door of the place where the saint is undertaking his holy death vow.
Thus, these forty eight holy death preceptor saints try to get the saint cross the ocean of weary world through their care in maintaining the meditation and equanimity of the mortifier saint. If one does not get the required number of holy death preceptor saints, one can
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