Jainism

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophical Publishing House

Page 38

JAINISM
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this kind is allowed; even so far as honey and butter does the law of forbidden food go, because in the gaining of honey the lives of bees are too often sacrificed. Then we find in the daily life of the Jaina rules laid down for the layman as to how he is to begin and end every day:
'He must rise very early in the morning and then he must repeat silently his mantras, counting its repetition on his fingers; and then he has to ask himself, "what am I, who is my Ishtadeva, who is my Gurudeva, what is my religion, what should I do, what should I not do?" This is the beginning of each day, the reckoning up of life as it were; careful, self-conscious recognition of life. Then he is to think of the Tirthamkaras, and then he is to make certain vows. Now these vows are peculiar, as far as I know, peculiar to the Jinas, and they have an object which is praiseworthy and most useful. A man at his own discretion makes some small vow on a thing absolutely unimportant. He will say in the morning: 'During this day — I will take an extreme case given to me by a Jaina — during this day I will not sit down more than