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Penances
.183
(Vivikta Sayyāsana), 6. Mortification of the body (Kāya kleśa).1
1. Anaśana : The food may he abandoned either for a limited period or till death.2 Pūjyapāda says that penance is performed for the sake of self-control, exterminating attachment, annihilating Karmans, performing meditation and acquiring scriptural knowledge; and not for any worldly purpose.3 Mere maceration of body should be distinguished from fasting, where detachment from food is essential.4
2. Avamaudarya : Normally the full quantity of food for an ascetic is thirty-two morsels in the case of a monk and twenty-eight in the case of a nun. Any reduction in this quantity constitutes this tapas. Mūlācāra says that it helps control of senses and sleep, in practising Dharma, and in the performance of six essentials.
3. Vrttiparisamkhyāna : Like the first two types of penances, this type also involves control of food. The ascetic decides regarding the number of houses to be visited, the manner of taking food, the type of food and the qualification of the giver of food, before going out to beg food.? If he finds that his conditions are fulfilled he would accept the food, otherwise he would go without it. Sometimes the conditions are too difficult to be normally fulfilled and the monk has to go without food for a very long period. This helps him in uprooting the desire for food.8
4. Rasaparityāga : This again is connected with food. The monk should eat to live and not live to eat. This means a control of palate. He should, therefore, renounce one or more of the six objects of taste viz. milk, curd, ghee, oil, sugar and salt and also one or more of the following types of
1. Tattvärthasūtra, 9.19. 2. Mülācāra, 5.151-152. Also Uttarādhyayana 30.9 and Bhagavatiārādhana,
209
Pūjyapāda on Tattvārthasūtra, 9.19. 4. Satkhandāgama, 5.4.26 (Vol. XIII, p. 55). 5. Mülācāra, 5.153. Also Bhagavatī ārādhana 211, 212; Uttarādhyayana
30.15 and Virasena on Satkhaņdāgama, 5.4.26 (Vol. XIII, p. 56). 6. Mūlācāra, 5.153. Also Anāgāradharmāmýta, 7.22. 7. Mülācāra, 5.158. Also Bhagavati Ārādhana, 218-221; and Virasena on
Satkhaņdāgama, 5.4.26 (Vol. XIII, p. 57). 8. Anāgāradharmāmsta, 7.26.
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