________________
166
INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
withdraw and be alone for. All rooms are public domain. People constantly come to beg for their blessings and to ask questions. The monks seem to be completely unaffected by what happens around them. I asked one monk how he could stand it, all this adoration and perhaps not always very intelligent questions. But he had no problem. Calmly he answered ihe result was that in any case beneficial. For the questioner : it least if he or she was listening seriously, but if not then for himself, because in this way he gave a spiritual lesson. I would explode in irritation and despair. Not they. Irritation is an emotion which attracts undesirable karmic molecules which will become an obstacle for the liberation of the soul, and they will not allow themselves to do such a thing.
The highest form of pure behavior, only exhibited by ascetics who have tremendous stamina and enlightened knowledge, is a form of ascetism named pariharavisuddhi - meaning total abstinence from violence, which entails fasting for an extended period, restrictions on the types of food to be taken, meditation, and service to fellow monks. All this should be done in a state of total mental and emotional equanimity. In agreement with the rules, nine monks join hands and follow uninterruptedly for nine month this severe path of penitence. In the Svetambara (but not in the Digambara) tradition, six monks practice this ascesis during the first six months, and four others carry the responsibility to serve the four fasting monks. This is necessary because their bodies can become very weak, and because they engage in meditation only. One of the four serving monks is chosen as āchārya. During the second phase of six months their roles are reversed, but the same person remains the achārya. In the third period it is the task of the monk who served as the achārya for the last twelve months to practice - as the only one left – his ascesis. One of the other eight monks now becomes achārya and the other seven serve him (Pacisavana Bola p. 146).
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
