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JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
The Ayaranga lays much stress on severe asceticism. If a monk suffers from cold, he should rather freeze to death then break his vow. However ill and weak he may be, he should rather die than break his vow of fasting. He is to go naked, so as to expose himself to the pricking of the blades of grass, to the inclemency of weather and the bites of flies and mosquitoes. A Jain monk is exhorted to have the following as his motto : “He should not long for life, nor wish for death, he should yearn after neither life, nor death. He, who is indifferent and wishes for the destruction of Kurman, should continue his contemplation. Becoming unattached internally and externally, he should strive after absolute purity."
The ninth chapter gives a graphic account of the ascetic life of Lord Mahāvira the Great Hero.
“He wandered naked and homeless. People struck him and mocked at him. Unconcerned, he continued in his meditation. In Ladha the inhabitants persecuted him and set the dogs on him. They beat him with sticks and with their fists, and threw fruits, clods of earth and potsherds at him. They tried to disturb him in his meditations by all sorts of torments. But, like a hero in the forefront of the battle, Mahāvira withstood it all. Whether he was wounded or not, he never sought medical aid. In winter he meditated in the shade, in the heat of summer he seated himself in the scorching sun.
The second book provides the rules of conduct for a monk in detail.
The first book of Ayaranga decidedly possesses a
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