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Jaina Acāra : Siddhanta aura Swarūpa
(i) Sāmāyika-i.e. vow of equanimity which smoothens life and finds a ready solution for most intricate social and domestic problems. Its regular and sincere practice can take one to the highest summit. No penance, no suffering, no mechanical observance of vows can help without this vow. The votary takes life to be a journey which is not always easy and comfortable. There are ups and downs. There are thorns, hurdles, obstructions galore. This vow has the potency to steer clear of them. The householder's vow is for a short duration, whereas that of the ascetic is life-long. While practising this vow, no votary should support sinful activities, even though it may not be forbidden. He spends only some time doing it, and all the time members of his family and others are busy plying their trades. Attached as he is to them, he cannot cut asunder all ties that bind him to them.
Amrtcandra says that no householder can observe vows like an ascetic but by self denial he can become ascetic-like. Ksamăsramana advises votaries to practise this vow several times every day. Even clothes are changed at the time of concentration. The main object is to effect transformation in life. The soul, loaded with sins, has to be lightened. So long as there is even a trace of attachment and aversion, the votary can experience no equanimity. It is not possible before he reaches the thirteenth stage of spiritual development. This is not to make householders despondent, since their progress is steady, though slow. Everybody cannot be Gajasukumala to attain the top notch in a trice. A pitcher is filled drop by
drop but if no water is poured into it, it will remain empty. Its transgressions · are five in number :(i) Manahduspranidhāna—When the householder looks not within but
without and is in the state of indecisive, uneasy and constant
reflection. (ii) Vacanaduspranidhāna—To use harsh, grating words at the time of
concentration. (ii) Kāyaduspranidhāna—To expand and contract the body and to feel
uneasy. (iv) Smțityakarana-To forget its time and thus miss it. (v) Anavasthita-To become unsteady and to have done with it or to do it half-heartedly and haphazardly.
II. Dešāvakasika vow Disaparimanavarata is considerably hard, since here the territorial limits are fixed for life. If during its pendency, some days or some hours are further limited, it becomes Desāvakäsika. Some other preceptor opines that the harder vow is taken for a year or four months, whereas the easier one is taken for three hours, for a day or for less than fortyeight minutes. At least fortyeight minutes should be reserved for the concentrated practice of
equanimity. If some votary closes five doors of the inflow of passion, he can Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
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