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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
mainly depend on the facilities for producing and buying-selling things really useful to the society. So, it is necessary to invest money, in one form or the other, in professions and industries which deal in or produce those things. Regarding money invested in various necessary professions and industries, the question arises as to whether or not the investor be regarded as bhāvaparigrahī (i.e., one having attachment for the possessions). Pondering over this problem, we feel that the investor should not be regarded as bhāvaparigrahi with regard to the money invested in the socially beneficial professions and industries, because bhāvaparigraha is related with the determination as to how much and of what kind the parigraha (possessions, wealth) be set aside from the net profit in order to meet the necessities of an individual member or the entire family and the future expenses on the good and bad occasions, while the invested money is related with providing the society its necessities through professions and industries. For example, a farmer sows grain-seeds in order that there may grow grains so many times more than what he has sown and thereby members of the society may survive. If the production of grains is less than what is required or the buying-selling business is hampered or arrested, then there will arise grave situation and the society will have to face terrible calamity.
The objective of the vow is to limit one's possessions. The vow should not be used as a means of increasing one's possession or allowing one's desire for wealth to be inordinate and endless. For example, a lower middle class man, while expressing his desire of taking the vow, requests the monk in the following words: “Sire! please, give me the vow of limiting possession, wherein the limits set by me are as follows. I can possess the diamonds up to 20 kg, pearls up to 40 kg, Rupees up to one crore, utensils of the value of Rupees one lakh, and household goods and furnitures of the value of Rupees five lakh." This is really a mockery of the vow and the one who gives such a vow is to be regarded as an indiscreet and thoughtless person, because here the objective of the vower is to foster his desire for the unlimited accumulation of wealth, and not to cultivate the good quality of contentedness or remove the disparity found among the members of the society.
About the Vow of Limiting Quantity of Things We use The vow of limiting quantity of things we use has concern with:
(1) limiting the things we use once or repeatedly
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