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Jaina Acara : Siddhanta aura Svarūpa
163 (8) Vakragati-It is to take alms in a curved manner. Kundkunda says
that a monk who accepts faultless food is virtually one who may be said to have gone without food. Haribhadra has given three kinds of alms as follows :
(i) Dinavriti - Orphans, handicapped or otherwise afflicted beg humbly and pleadingly.
(ii) Paurusaghni - It is to beg, even though the beggar is ablebobied, having the capacity to earn for himself.
(iii) Sarvasmpatakari - It is the Jaina way of accepting alms which should be faultless and not meant for some monk in particular.
The commentator Tilaka's view is that 'carya' does not merely mean begging tour but also eating out of the collected food. No food is to be found fault with. A monk must eat with pleasure and not mix the food with other ingredients to make it more relishable. The food must first be viewed by seniors. In case of some blemish, steps should be taken to purify it by properly expiating for it.
Sramana Pratikramanasūtra says that no monk should try to enter a closed house. If he enters, he might seriously inconvenience the master. It can be done only in an emergency.
While on a begging-tour, monks come across dogs, cows, calves and playing children who must not be over-run by them. Such action may be injurious and also strikes at the root of decency.
Householders keep apart some food as a meritorious deed and also some which they scatter in four directions and then dropped into fire. They keep apart what is to be offered to a monk. They may keep apart food for some other monk. All such food should be unacceptable. So also the food meant specially for a monk. On reaching a house, he must inspect what things are placed where to see that no violence is caused in any way. When sick, medicines may also be asked for, but only from some known house. If asked for from any and every house, the monastic organisation is defamed.
4. Rasaparityāga, i.e. abstinence from delicacies. When a monk comes to like something eatable, wishes to hear about it, to touch and smell it or ever to keep it in mind it is 'rasa' which grips the attention of a monk for whom taste or relishing victuals is strictly forbidden. Such food is stimulating and exciting. Milk, curd, butter, ghee, oil, jaggery, honey, wine and meat are not to be thought of and strictly to be avoided. Of these, honey, wine, meat and bulbs are specialy vicious.
Sagarasdharmāmrta has classified them as follows: (1) What is had from a cow, i.e. milk, curd, ghee, etc.
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