Jain Journal 2000 04

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

Page 24

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXIV, No. 4 April 2000 means of livelihood according to the tenets of religion not only prepares a Jaina householder mentally with attitudes of detachment, but also externally curtails him from hoarding.99
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A significant practice among the Jaina householders, which further helps in minimizing attachment to the material universe, is gift offering or Dāna. It is popular among the Buddhists as well. In the absence of this practice no ascetics can survive and consequently there could be no transmission of their sacred doctrine. Dana as understood in its largest sense includes the giving of one's daughter and the transmission of property to one's heirs, the exercise of charity, the construction of temples and community institutions such as common kitchen or poṣadhaśāla, or even the performance of pūjā viewed as the giving of flowers, incense, flag staff and similar offerings.
Generally ascetics are given food and drink, clothes, blankets, bedding and other necessary accessories. Ahara, abhaya, śāstra and bhaiṣajya are the four types of gift-offering made to the ascetics. Acārya Vasunandin says that in any act of gift-offering five factors have to be considered the recipient (pātra), the giver (dāṭr), the thing given (dātavya, dravya), the manner of giving (dānavidhi) and the result of giving (dāna phala). 100 Like other meritorious acts, it can contribute to the extinction of karma or to the amassing meritorious karma or may find requital in the present life.
Acārya Hemacandra proposes a scheme wherein illustrious disciples sow their wealth on the seven fields with compassion for those in great misery. 101 They are:
99.
i. Jaina images: wealth is spent on them by setting them up, by performing the eight-fold pūjā, by taking them in procession through the city, by adorning them with jewels, and fine clothes; ii. Jaina temples: wealth is spent on building new domes and for old ones to be restored;
The ideal of Aparigraha (non-possession of wealth) is an underlying tenet for the simplistic, austere life of a Jain householder which provides ample empirical and logical evidence that the earning of profits is not for the sake of non-productive consumption but for reinvestment. This tenet also explains the large scale philanthropic activity done by such the miniscule Jaina community in Indian society', Idea, Ideology and practice, ed. 'N.K. Singhi, p. 200.
100. Jnanapitha Murtidevi Jaina Granthamala, Prakrit Series No. 3, p. 200. 101. Yogasāstra of Hemacandra, iii, 120.