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CHAPTER V
THE CONDUCT OF A HOUSEHOLDER Who is a householder ?
The Jaina word for a householder, frāvaka, covers all those persons who have attained right faith but have not adopted monkhood. These persons either observe the vows partially (aņuvrata) or do not observe them (aviratasamygdrsți). But pure right faith is the necessary condition for a śrāvaka. This purity of right faith comes from its eight essentials1 and from freedom from eight prides and three follies. 3
Having conquered the vision-deluding karmans (darśanamohaniya), the śrāvaka continues to struggle against another enemy, the character-obstructing (caritramohaniya) karmans. He adopts the twelve vows prescribed for a laity and then proceeds to limit his desires till he is able to take the absolute vows (mahāvrata) and adopt the life of a monk. This is generally a gradual process. At the higher stage of spiritual development a śrāvaka is called Naisthika who renounces the worldly life and takes to a life that resembles the life of a monk (śramanabhūtapratimā). Thus śrāvakācāra includes not only the conduct of a grhastha but also the conduct of one who is known as vānaprastha in Hindu-dharma-śāstras. The position of a householder:
Jaina ethics is primarily ascetic. The life of a householder is meant to be a short stay, only for those who are still incapable of enduring the hardships of the life of a monk. The morality of a householder, therefore, occupies a secondary place to the morality of a monk. We, therefore, find that the older books like Ācārānga of the Svetāmbaras or Mülācāra of the Digambaras, deal primarily with the life of a monk.
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1. Supra, pp. 86-87. 2. Supra, pp. 90. 3. Supra, p. 85.
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