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Jaina Acara : Siddhanta aura Svarūpa
needs no care and the concentration should be exclusively on the soul. A woman, when her chastity is threatened, will rather die than submit to the brute force. Kakā Kalelkara said that a useless body should be neglected and death welcomed. Mahātmā Gandhi was of the same view.
Living one's life is the period of study and dying is the time of the final examination without passing which there is no success hereafter. Ācārya Skandaka inspired his five hundred disciples at Dandakāranya to die in perfect harmony with all others but he himself fell from the ideal and took birth as Agnikumara. Jadabharata became attached to a deer on the eve of his death and so he was reborn as an animal. It lies within our power to make our death dignified and graceful when we should be conscious of our 'selves' alone. The Vedic tradition permits all men and women of whatever caste to undertake fast unto death because of some heinous sin committed or when the suffering becomes incurably intolerable. Fast unto death at a place of pilgrimage has been praised. In the Rāmāyana when the monkeys failed to discover Sītā they contemplated fast unto death. This is because of their failure to do the assigned job. In the Srimadbhāgavata there is a reference to king Pariksita's fast. Also in the Mahabharata, Rajataranginī and Pancatantra there are references also to death by burning oneself in special circumstances but never taking the form of suicide which has ever been condemned by all.
The ideal duration is of twelve years. The worst is of six months and the intermediate one is of a year, Pravacanasaroddhāra suggests that in the first four years a monk-should strictly observe fourth, sixth and eighth penaces, at the end of which he should take pure food. In the next five years he should observe diversified penances, at the end of which he should abstain from taking milk, and other delicacies This should continue for eight years. In the ninth and tenth years he should fast at the end of which he should take only roasted paddy. During the first six months of the eleventh year he should observe austerities and take food on the fourth and sixth day at the end of which he should take roasted paddy and reduce its quantity. He should observe fast during the next six months with food on sixth, eighth and tenth days to be necessarily followed by roasted paddy and water. During this period he need not reduce the quantity.
Jivadāsagani says that in the twelfth year roasted paddy with hot water should be taken. He should go on reducing their quantity so that on the last day only one food-grain and a drop of water should be left. That will be the consummation of this vow. Every day one morsel of food should be decreased. In the lessening process he comes to one morsel. One grain should further be decreased daily. Such observances ensure 'Samadhimarana'. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
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