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Jaina Acāra : Siddhānta aura Svarūpa
217 not desire a bed. The custom was that monks used to sleep on straw beds, but after wetting the ground a little. Those whose robes were stolen or seized also used straw beds: The monk Kesi had offered a straw bed to Gautama. It was only in later times that beds of cloth replaced straw ones.
(18) Jalla—This is not to wipe perspiration, mud, sand and the like. It is not to feel disgusted with hateful things. No attempt should be made to cleanse the body or bathe it. Monks must take all such inconveniences in their stride, knowing that a pampered body is no aid to spiritual, practices.
(19) Satkāra-Puraskāra—Satkāra is to praise somebody and Puraskāra is to establish the superiority of one over the other. Seeing otheres being glorified, praised in public and offered ceremonial welcome no monk should be envious of their lot. Whether others salute him or not, even ignore or insult him, he must not be desirous of name and fame. Unworthy people may be felicitated, and worthies like him disregarded. Let it be so, since monks are not expected to look backward.
(20) Jnāna-If a monk, after years of labour, feels disgruntled, thinking that his attempts have gone futile and even wonders whether he,as a householder, was not better off, his half-hearted practices will tend to become mechanical. He should work harder but hopefully. This is really conquest over little knowledge if not ignorance. This is also ‘Adarsana'. in so far as he has not been able to envision truth.
(21) Darsana-It is not to entertain doubts with regard to the next life, the existence of the Founders of Faith or disbelief in scriptural edicts and the like. No temptation should shake his belief in piety and righteous actions. He will come in confrontation with believers and non-believers in moral and spiritual action as also in the efficacy or otherwise of knowledge. Such various sects are not for an initiated, devoted soul.
(22) Prajnā—It means the sharpness of intellect. Those who are expert in logic, grammar, literature and the like and are not only talented but geniuses, when tainted with pride, are oblivious of their goal. Egoism mars spiritual endeavour. If they think that they can give a drubbing defeat to their opponents, who flee their presence as the deer bounce the moment they hear the roar of a lion, it cannot but impede their spiritual growth.
Uttaradhyanai tells us that monks should conquer the aforesaid twenty-two afflictions. A monk should take them as the fruit of their previous Karmas and remain unmoved and immovable as an elephant in a battlefield, as the Meru Mountains in the midst of a storm and a lion which never takes a backward step.
The Digambaras, however, do not believe that the Omniscient needs any morsel of food. He also has to suffer from fifteen afflictions, but hunger means no trouble to him. These afflictions are no obstruction to his
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