Jain Journal 1998 10

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

Page 22

SEKHAR: THE ŚRAMANA RESPONSE TO THE HUMAN PREDICAMENT
53
describes how two sons took refuge in the path of the Jina. As the father discourages and dissuades his sons from a life of austerities, the sons reply to him, 'if the whole world and all treasures were yours you would still not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. Whenever you die, O king, and leave all pleasant things behind, the law alone and nothing else in this world, will save you a monarch.'75
It is easier for a monk to lead a life with frugal means. The structure and life-style of a mendicant provides austerity measures because as one single individual, he may be weak and slip back into his old ways, 76 but assisting one another they would strengthen one another's efforts. The structure, for instance, has provided rules for begging of food, clothes, couch, bowl and regulates the possession of a mendicant.77 A householder, on the other hand, is thrown in the midst of a world with vast differences in attitude and behaviour. He has to swim though all that is negative and compete with all that is positive. Specially when the world prefers artha and kama to Dharma and Mokṣa, a householder is at a loss to balance between needs and wants. He observes the two extremes of life: luxury and poverty, power and powerlessness, name, influence etc. and to be hidden and unknown etc. The choice is left to him to balance his life.
(iii) counter to attachment and individualism
The word parigraha metaphorically refers to ownership. On the psychic level, it is an attitude of detachment and in the economic realm it is non-obsession with material things or simply nonpossession. Aparigraha, besides being a vow, is an attitude towards life, particularly the material universe. This vrata implicitly affirms the autonomy of the material universe. It again implies that what we call wealth, possessions and the pleasures etc. are strictly outside one's self. They may be meant for oneself but does not really belong to the self.
This basic understanding comes from the idea that Jiva is full of consciousness and all others, like pleasures, activity etc. are extraneous to it. So in order to attain the objective of life, namely, the realisation of the true self which is devoid of all that is extraneous to it, Aparigraha vow has been proposed. This vow clarifies the vision regarding the true nature of the self and to respect the autonomy of the material
universe.
75. Uttaradhyayanasutra, ibid., 14.39-40.
76. Paul Carus, ibid., ch. 17, Verse 2.
77. Acarangasūtra, ibid., 2.1-2, 5-7.