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SĀGĀRA VINAYA
(THE HOUSEHOLDERS' CONDUCT)
The Two Tiered Dharma Based on Right-Conduct
In keeping with great emphasis on right-conduct by its followers, which is echoed in the epithet. Vinaya mūlao dhammo' meaning ‘The religion is based on (right) conduct', Jainism prescribes a two tiered code of conduct - one, the more rigorous one, for its clergy (Anagāra Vinaya) and the other, with lesser rigour for the laity (Sāgāra Vinaya). It stands to reason that the code for the clergy has to be more rigorous and stringent as compared to that for the laity. This chapter brings out the salient features of these codes in necessary but sufficient details.
Though we are dealing with the conduct part of the faith here, we must not lose sight of the three pillars that uphold it and constitute the path of spiritual emancipation and final deliverance. They are right-vision, right-knowledge and right-conduct. It has been brought out earlier that the right-conduct is based on right-knowledge and, which, in turn, is based on right-vision. Also, it can be appreciated that a person steeped in wrongdoing cannot be expected to be endowed with right-knowledge and right-vision. These three prongs of religion are, thus, interdependent and support each other. Out of these two the first two - right-vision and right-knowledge coexist. Every living being has a fund of information stored in its mind all the time. It
