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Jaina View of Life
stages of moral and spiritual practice resulting from the careful observations of the twelve vows mentioned so far. They are the Pratimās, stages of spiritual progress; and Schubring says "Horizontally expanded as it were, these obligations are projected in the vertical by the ladder of the 11 uvā saga-padima”.46 The eleven Pratinās are the injunctions or the ways of conduct progressively leading towards the development of ideal personality. They present a ladder (sopāna-marga) for the layman.
The eleven Pratimās are :- 1) samyag drsti (right attitude), 2) vrata (practice of vows), 3) samāyika (equanimity which helps in the practice of vows), 4) proşadha (fasting on certain days of the month), 5) sacitta-tyāga (giving up certain types of food like roots etc.), 6) ratribhojana-tyagu (giving up eating at night), 7) brahmacarya (celibacy), 8) arambha-tyāga (giving up certain types of occupations like agriculture involving injury to living beings.), 9) parigraha-tyāgas (giving up all possessions except clothes), 10) anumati-tyāga. (non-participation in the househlod responsibilities), and 11) uddista-tyäga. In this stage the Sravaka accepts only the minimum of cloth like the lojn cloth (kaupina). There are minor variations in the list of practices presented by the Svetambara and Digambara sects, and they are not relevant for our discussion. Suffice it to say that in the progressive realization of these Pratimās a pious layman is led step by step towards the attainment of samnyāsa, i.e. a life of renunciation. There is, in this, a psychological presentation of the principal of varņasrama prevailing in the Hindu way of life, because a householder steadily and surely proceeds towards renunciation. This transformation is much truer to human nature as there is no sudden transformation which needs acute psychological orientation. When one moves from Gphasthārama to Vānaprasthāśrama and then to samnyāsa, one
45. The Doctrine of the Jainas by Walther Schubring. Translated from
the revised German edition by Wolfgang Beurlen, Motilal Bana
rasidass 1962, p. 285. 46. Ratnakarand aka Sravak ācāra, v. 25-28.
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