Book Title: Jaina Acara Siddhanta aur Svarupa
Author(s): Devendramuni
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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Page 114
________________ 80 etc. Jaina Acara: Siddhanta aura Swarupa (11) Yantrapiḍana, i.e. business in propelling machinery. (12) Nirtanchana, i.e. business in slitting animals. (13) Dāvāgnidanakarma, i.e. to set forests and fields afire. (14) Sarohradatadagasosanta, i.e. business in drying tanks, lakes (15) Asatihanapesanata, i.e. to nourish lewd women, ferocious beasts and anti-social elements. Besides these there are slaughter-houses, hunting grounds, gambling dens, thieves' hideouts, robbers' resorts, bars, brothels etc. A householder is not lured by any such business, since he must have already abjured seven addictions. A lay votary has perforce, though unknowingly, to indulge in unavoidable sinful activities. To abstain from all the remaining sinful activities is the vow of shunning purposeless activities. What a man does, good or bad, sticks to the soul. It cannot remain unaffected by multifarious actions of mankind. The vows are meant to keep the soul immaculate. One must discriminate between good and bad actions, as a clever woman separates small pieces of gravel from grain. One gladly suffers the kicks of a cow provided she gives milk, otherwise not. Discrimination is the thermometer to measure purposeful and purposeless sinful activities. With the change in situation, what was purposeful may become useless and vice versa. You must consider the likely consequences of your actions and decide accordingly. Abhayadeva says that a householder takes care of his family, home and hearth, field and shop. Whatever violence he thus commits is purposeful. When you do things carelessly or out of curiosity, you indulge in purposeless sinful activity. An irrational traditionalist cannot practise such vows. There are four bases of purposeless activity. They are: (1) Apadhyānacarita, i.e. free indulgence in evil thoughts. Amṛtacandra has thus specified them, "Hunting, accumulation of sin, victory and defeat, war, prostitution and the like." Samantabhadra's analysis is that killing a person swayed by emotion of attachment and aversion, binding, maiming, treating another woman as one's own etc. are concentration on evil things. This is what Hemcandra says to househlders, "Desires like killing the enemy, regal splendour, destruction of a city, incendiarism, flight in the sky and the like should have no admittance to the mind of a votary. If perchance they manipulate entry, they should be shown the door within forty-eight minutes". Feelings of attachment and aversion are generated on occasions like separation of the loved ones and union with the undersirable.(1) Think of the material rather than the instrumental cause on such occasions. What matters is the material cause. To entertain evil thoughts is worse than the company of demons. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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