Jain Journal 1998 10

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

Page 21

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXIII, No. 2 October 1998
desire by 'desirelessness'67 giving up the world, 68 his possessions and relations and all undertakings and become a wanderer and homeless without worldly interests. 69 A muni is said to be the one who knows the doctrine of sin, who knows the time, the occasion the conduct, the religious precept and disowns all things as not required for religious purposes.70 In him there is no worldly desires and attachment.
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Again in the Uttarādhyayanasūtra there is a conversation between King Nami and the god of gods Śakra in the guise of a Brahmana : Śakra asks King Nami, 'Your place is on fire why do you not look after your seraglio?'. To this the king replies, 'Happy are we, happy we live, we who call nothing our own; when Mithila is on fire, nothing is burnt that belongs to me. To a monk who has left his sons and wives and who has ceased to act, nothing pleasant can occur, nor anything unpleasant. There is much happiness for the sage, for the houseless monk, who is free from all ties, and knows himself to be single and unconnected (with the rest of the world)'.71
These mendicants provide an alternative to wealth and the rich blessings of the world. They give priority to religion and religious living as sure means to attain the goal of life: 'Making faith his fortress, penance and self-control the bolt (of its gate), patience its strong wall....making zeal his bar, its string carefulness in walking (iriyā) and its top (where the string is fastened content, he should bend (this bow) with Truth, piercing with the arrow, penance, (the foe's) mail, karma (in this way) a sage will be the victor in battle and get rid of the samara.72
The reason for such a persuasion is that wealth cannot give what is necessary to man. Moreover if there were numberless mountains of gold and silver, as big as Kailasa, they would not satisfy a greedy person; for his activity is boundless like space.73 Wealth cannot really save: It is only a fool who thinks that his wealth, cattle and relations will save him; they him or he them. But they are no help, no protection.74 The fourteenth chapter of the Uttaradhyayanasūtra
67. Walter Fernandez, ibid., p. 18.
68. Acārāngasūtra, ibid., 1.2.2.1.
69. Sūtrakṛtānga, ibid., 1.2.1, 21-22; 1.9.7.
70. Acārāngasūtra, ibid., 1.7.3.2.
71. Uttaradhyayanasūtra, ibid., 9.12-16.
72. Ibid., 9.20-22.
73. Ibid., 9.48.
74. Sūtrakṛtānga, ibid., 1.2.3.16.