Jainism

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

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JAINISM
are no female asecetics and their views of women are perhaps not on the whole very complimentary. Among the Shvetambaras, however, there are female ascetics as well as male, under the same strict rules of begging, of renouncing of property; but one very wise rule is that the ascetic must not renounce things without which progress cannot be made. Therefore he must not renounce the body; he must beg food enough to support it, because only in the human body can he gain liberation. He must not renounce the Guru, because without the teaching of the Guru he cannot tread the narrow razor path; nor discipline, for if he renounces that, progress would be impossible; nor the study of the Sutras, for that also is needed for his evolution. But outside these four things — the body, the Guru, discipline, study — there must be nothing of which he can say: 'It is mine'. Says a teacher: 'He should not speak unasked, and asked he should not tell a lie; he should not give way to his anger, and should bear with indifference, pleasant and unpleasant occurrences. Subdue your self, for the self is difficult to subdue; if your self is