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Jaina Path of Purification (Liberation)
karuna eva ca'. The mental state free from any ill-will towards any being and full of compassion and friendliness towards all beings itself is the perennial fount of the virtue of donation. Such a mental state keeps constantly flowing the righteous activity of donation through speech and body.
Donation, whether performed through bodily labour or mental labour, whether in the form of imparting knowledge or in the form of compassion, whether of money or of other useful things, is included in renunciation; we have already stated this. There are three possible objectives of renunciation. This will be clear from what follows.
There are three types of renunciation:
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(1) Renunciation rooted in self-control
Renunciation which helps practice of five vows, the forms of self-control, is renunciation rooted in self-control. Renunciation of unwholesome objects of pleasure which, instead of giving pure bliss, do harm to the body, pervert the mind, lead to the waste of money and increase the feeling of attachment is the renunciation rooted in self-control.
The following are some of the cases of renunciation of this type:
(a) Renunciation of attractive and fine cloth whose production in mills
involves large scale violence. One remains satisfied with hand-spun and hand-woven khaddar whose production involves very little violence. (b) Renunciation of silk garments whose production involves killing of the four-sensed silk-worms.
(c) Renunciation of ornaments made of pearls obtained after tearing (splitting) the five-sensed fish.
(d) Renunciation of witnessing dramas, cinemas which rouse sexual pas
sion.
(e) Renunciation of ornaments which are put on for the sake of displaying one's riches or impressing others. Men need no ornaments, and women too need not wear ornaments except those that serve as auspicious marks of their wifehood.
(f) Renunciation of make-up materials like talcum powder, lipstick, etc.
His words are: Goyamā! je gilāṇaṁ padicarai se mam damsanena padivajjai, je maṁ damsanena paḍivajjai se gilānam paḍicarai /
"They asked a great one: How many ways are there to God? He said: There are as many ways as there are atoms in the universe, but the best and shortest is Service."
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