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Jaina Acara: Siddhanta aura Swarupa
99
possess whole cloths to cover the body and next to the aged, learned monks. The freshers should be accommodated close to the senior ones in order that they may be properly looked after by the young ones at night. Any violation of it would be wrong.
Monks and nuns should not stay at a lay votary's house or a place between two houses. Since their standing posture may cause suspicion in others' minds, such places should be shunned. But in unavoidable circumstances diseased, old monks and also such as might have fainted may stay but they must not utter more than five 'gāthās' nor should they indulge in conversation and that also while standing. In case some votary insists on knowing things about the vows, the answer should be brief and pointed.
When a monk or nun has to leave for another village, they should do it after handing over bed, sheet and the like to the householder. Whatever things they had borrowed from some householder should be preserved with care. If perchance they should be missing, they must strive to search for them. If monks or nuns are staying during the rainy season or for a month with permission, they may stay on for some more time if other groups also should be about to leave at the same time, but not without approval from the senior ones. In no case such shelter should be resorted to for more than twenty four hours.
In case there be an encampment of the army outside a village or city, monks and nuns, after begging for alms should return to their abode. Its violation entails atonement. For alms they must not go beyond five miles. Eating at night and negligence in duty attract punishment in some form or the other. Eunuchs and sexy persons are deemed unfit for initiation. To teach scriptures to such as are impertinent and voracious is improper. Those who are wicked, foolish and vainly proud are unfit both for instruction and initiation. If a monk or nun, when sick, sits or stands with the support of dependents or associates and if they then entertain some vicious thought, they are required to atone for it. They must not take food if it be in violation of time and place. Food brought in the first three hours of the day must not be kept for use beyond three times the period. If the cause be forgetfulness or carelessness, it should be put aside as discarded. To eat it is punishable. If some undesirable relishable food is brought by a monk unknowingly, it should be given to such as have not accepted the five great vows. If it be not possible, it should be placed at a secluded, faultless place. A monk may go to a more learned monk, of a different Order for some textual clarification but with permission. In case a preceptor himself wishes to stay for some time with the preceptor of another Order he may do so, but accompanied with some senior monks and only after handing over charge to the next in authority.
If a monk or nun dies in the evening or at night, the dead body should be preserved with care. In the morning bamboos, strings and the like
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