Jain Journal 1974 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 92

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JAIN JOURNAL
(in the afternoon), careful inspection of his clothes and other things for the removal of insects, for cleaning them, etc. (for details see lect. xxvi, of the Uttarādhyayana Sutra, SBE, xlv, 142 ff.) There are various monastic degrees. First there is the novice (śaik şa), who is not yet ordained. When he or any other man takes the vows (vratadana), he renounces the world (pravrajyā) and initiated or takes dikşā. The most important ceremony at that time is the shaving or pulling out of the hair under a tree. From a common monk he may rise to the rank of a teacher and superior called upādhyāya, ācārya, vācaka, gaṇin, etc. according to degrees and occupations.
The religious duties of the laity have, to some extent, been treated above. The ideal of conduct is that of the monk, which a layman, of course, cannot realize, but which he tries to approach by taking upon himself particular vows.37 But in practical life also, apart from asceticism, the Jainas possess a body of rules composed by monks which lay out a rational course of life for laymen and tend to improve their welfare and moral standard.38 The monks have also to provide for the religious wants of the laity by explaining sacred texts or religious treatises and delivering sermons; this is done in the upāśrayas where the laymen visit them ; similarly the nuns are visited by, or visit, the lay women. But the most conspicuous habit of the laity is attendance in temples, and worship of the Tirthakaras and the deities associated with them. 39
We must now advert to a peculiarity of the Jainas which has struck all observers more than any other, viz., their extreme carefulness not to destroy any living being, a principle which is carried out to its very last consequences in monastic life, and has shaped the conduct of the laity in a great measure. No layman will intentionally kill any living being, not even any insect, however troublesome; he will remove it carefully without hurting it. It goes without saying that the Jainas are strict vegetarians. This principle of not hurting any living being
37 Mention should be made of the 11 padimas (Skr. Pratima), or standards of as
cetic life, which a layman may take upon himself especially when he intends to end his life by starving (cf. Hoernle, Uvasagadasao, tr., p. 45, 12f., IA xxxiii (1904), 330. E. Windisch, Yogasastra, Germ. tr., ZDMG, xxviii (1874); L. Sauli, Yogabindu, Ital. tr., Giornale della Societa Asiatica Italiana, xxi (1908); Warren, Jainism, p. 64 ff. For a description of the worship of the different sections of the Jainas see Stevenson, Mod. Jainism, p. 85 ff. where there is also a short notice of the Jaina festivals and fasts (p. 107 ff.; cf. also art. "Festivals and Fasts' (Jaina), ERE, vol. v, p. 875 ff.).