________________
JAINISM
SEVENTH VOW
(BHOGOPABHOGA PARIMANA VRATA) Is the limitation of the quantity of things we will use, whether it be things that can be enjoyed many times, such as furniture, pictures, persons of the opposite sex, clothes, ornaments, houses, bedding, carriages, etc., or whether it be things that can only be used once, such as cake, foods, drinks, flowers, etc. This helps the first five vows.
This vow includes the limitation of the activities we will engage in to get the things we use. So there are two divisions in this vow.
With regard to the things that we eat. If a layman can, he should use only things which are inanimate. If he cannot, then he will have to use things that are animate; but he should limit them in number, quantity, weight, etc. He should give up flesh foods; vegetables in which there are infinite lives in the one body, such as carrots, potatoes, turnips,-things that grow underground; also unknown fruit, decomposed food, honey, spirits, and eating at night.
2
With regard to the activities that a layman should engage in, in order to obtain the things he uses, they should be faultless, sinless, but not sinless in the Christian sense; sin here means sin against one's own soul, obstructing its virtues. If he is unable to avoid sinless businesses, then Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
