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Jaina Acāra : Siddhanta aura Swarūpa
is just pedantry. Vattekara's 'Mulacāra' is an important work dealing with various topics like vows, renunciation, passionless voluntary death as also with violations and transgressions. Even when attacked by some fierce animal, a monk should remain steady and passionless. Death cannot be avoided. Hence all the time the endeavour should be ever to keep the soul clean. 'Sivarya's' 'Bhagavati-ārādhanā' stresses right vision, right knowledge, right conduct and right penances. Some of his observations are not quite in consonance with the sky-clad tradition, such as the propriety of a monk's giving food and water to an ailing monk, the way how a monk's dead body may be left in a forest and the like. Some things have been taken from the white-clad tradition too. Nudity, plucking the hair, detachment and right inspection are the differentia of monks. Since they go to various provinces, they are expected to imbibe various virtues. They should also be proficient in many languages and conversant with varying customs and usages. Even the sky-clad monks are here permitted to put on some cloth in exceptional circumstances. Nemicandra's 'Labdhisara' deals with various stages of the achievement of purification as 'subsidence, subsidence-cum-destruction and the like.'
Devasena's 'Aradhanäsāra' likens mind to a king. When the king dies, his army becomes demoralised, so also when the mind is quiet, the sense-organs become disheartened, if not quite lifeless. Again, the mind has been likened to a camel. As the camel is tied with a rope, to keep it under control, so also the mind must be kept under control by knowledge. Mind may be taken as a tree. As the branches of attachment and aversion are dried because of the non-sprinkling of the water of infatuation, the mind in the form of a tree cannot subsist. As salt is dissolved in water, the mind should be absorbed in righteousness.
Chedapinda-The word 'Cheda' means expiation. Lapses of all kinds have to be atoned for, otherwise the soul will ever remain dirty. The sky-clad tradition has recognised twenty-eight primary qualities. Five great vows, five religious observances, conquest over five sense-organs, six indispensable duties, plucking of the hair, nudity, not to take bath, sleeping on the ground, taking food standing, not to cleanse teeth and food also but once a day. The sky-clad tradition recognises twenty-seven, but the list is different. Five great vows, conquest over five sense-organs, freedom from four passions, control over mind, body and speech, truthful mind, spiritual impulses that push the soul to fulfil its mission and realize the goal, truthful activity, rich in knowledge, vision and conduct, forgiving nature, detached etc. have been dealt with.
There is an apparent difference between the two sects of Jainism, but fundamentally there is none. Some small variations are like religious observances and self-control being not taken as major qualities by the
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