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Jaina Ethics and Miscellaneous Customs and Manners
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expenses should be in proportion to his income. He should follow the main regional customs if they do not go against the principles of Jainism. He should avoid undesirable habits. He should not libel or slander anybody. He should not keep the company of bad persons, must respect the parents, should not create unnecessary ill-feeling in the minds of others, should maintain his dependants, render service to the deserving persons, give up excessive eating and drinking, take proper medicine when required, avoid travelling in unprotected areas, live in peace with other persons, impress the lower people by his higher life, abstain from too much intimacy, establish relationships with right kind of people, try to achieve fourfold objectives of life, consider his strength before undertaking, anything attempt to rise higher and higher, do proper things at proper times, read everyday the scriptur give up obstinacy in all things, be partial to virtues and should develop critical attitude towards religion and get his doubts solved.50
As regards the rules of conduct for laymen it can be said in general that if the householder would carefully observe these rules of conduct, he would come into the possession of the following, twenty-one qualities which every true gentleman should possess. He would be serious in demeanour, clean as regards both his clothes and person, good tempered, popular, merciful, afraid of sinning, straightforward, wise, modest, -kind, moderate, gentle, careful in speech, sociable, cautious, studious, reverent both to old age and ancient customs, humble, grateful, benevolent, and attentive to business.51
(II) Rules of Conduct for Ascetics : When a layman consistently observes the rules of conduct prescribed for the householders and especially attains all Pratimās, he is qualified to become an ascetic. The admission into the order of monks is accompanied by the impressive ceremony known as Dikshā or initiation ceremony. This ceremony. makes the layman a member of the order of ascetics. The order of ascetics
ne of the two main orders in which Jaina community has been divided from the very beginning and the other order is that of laymen (including lay-women). There is a close connection between these two orders and the stage of a layman has been one preliminary and, in many cases, preparatory to the
(includin
