Jain Journal 2001 07

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

Page 39

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXVI, No. 1 July 2001
Jainism preaches that is the habit of possession is dropped, there would everywhere prevail peace and prosperity, in which the poor and helpless downtrodden would certainly get a chance to come in the mainstream of the society. According to Mahävira, the vow of strict and complete non-possession was to be obeyed by the ascetics, but for the householders, it is defined in a very liberal tone as 'accepting the most essential thing in the smallest proportion needed.'
The fifth vow Brahmacarya (celibacy) was almost included within the aparigraha vrata. But Mahāvīra separated the two to define the meaning of celibacy in a clearer way than what was needed of the time, as people had become the slave of the sensual pleasures and they had indulged in several unsocial activities. He gave ten conditions for the realisation of Brahmacarya. In general terms, celibacy means abstinence from excessive desire for any sort of sense enjoyment or even thinking about such objects. The observance of this doctrine protected the people from committing many crimes and evils. It created healthy atmosphere in the society and made the people virtuous.
According to Tirthankara Mahāvīra, Brahmacarya was the prime element for character making. Luxurious life makes the members of the nation lazy, weak, corrupt and diseased and in such an atmosphere, nobody would think for the welfare of the society, about uplifting the position of women and check on mental and physical sensual desires. Celibacy is the self developed idea of co-ordination or equality of men and women. It is regarded as the highest point of purification, where the sexual distinction vanishes and passions die. It symbolises sacrifice of all kinds of lust and attachment. As celibacy and nudity are closely related from the point of view of controlling the senses and the nonattachment to bodily pleasure and external needs. Another point apart from the five, which Mahāvira added in his religion, was making confession compulsory instead of optional for the monks and his followers.
For the people, who obeyed him, Tirthankara Mahāvīra prescribed certain rules of conduct also. He tried to bring changes in the existing social order and preached that it was the karma and not varna, which made a man a member of the then sour classes of the society. According to him, none was born as a Brahman or Sūdra. He opened the door of his religious order for all irrespective of one's caste or creed or status. He allowed women also to enter into the samgha, who were called as sādhuis. We have textual evidence to show that the bhikṣuni samgha consisted of 36000 women followers, whose head was also a bhiksuņi named Arya Candanā. Out of the four orders of Jain community, the