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XVII
TWO PATHS OF SPIRITUAL ENDEAVOUR:
Utsarga and Apavada.
The Jaina devotion is characterized by renunciation, penance, self-study and meditation.Utsarga means “primary' and Apavāda means 'secondary' The first comprises rules and regulations whereas the second treats of exceptions under special circumstances. The rules are meant to promote and elevate the character of monks. The aim of both is the same. They are really complementary to each other.
The commentator of Nisitha says that prohibitions for worthy aspirants may be acceptable to an average aspirant under unavoidable circumstances. The first is a highway whereas the second is a little zigzag. While walking on the highway a hermit may meet with obstructions to avoid which he takes the footway. When the highway becomes clear, he again takes to it. When he finds some serious difficulty in acting up to rules in letter and spirit, he takes recourse to some exception but only to retrace his steps in the right direction. He must not find a lame excuse to get rid of some stringent rule. He who misbehaves in the way incurs positive sin and is unworthy of asceticism. When sick, you take medicines but even when recovered do you continue taking them ? In case you do it, this betrays your foolhardiness and deviation from duty. Exceptions should be resorted to when there is no other way out and to meet some hard situation. Rules are always to be observed, since they are primary. The secondary is to be observed for a short time only when it becomes absolutely necessary. If it be adopted for sensual gratification, it is no exception but a clear dereliction of duty. The right use of exceptions must be based on discrimination. The hermit who is pure-hearted and a serious, well-meaning student of holy books knows when an exception to the rules may be permissible. It is not given to shallow mendicants who do not exactly know what is what. A businessman spends a little to earn much. Likewise a good hermit is at times led to do something apparently wrong but it is only to augment his virtue.
Bhadrabahu has dealt with the good qualities of one well-versed in scriptures. He discriminates between income and expenditure, reason and un-reason, well and unwell, substance and non-substance, proper and improper, virile and imbecile and the like. He is aware also of the likely
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