Book Title: Jainism the Creed for All Times
Author(s): D S Baya
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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Page 307
________________ day for those of the Svetāmbara pursuit. d. They cannot store anything or even keep it overnight. e. The ascetics accept clothing for protection from the vagaries of weather, for saving themselves from social censure and covering their nudity only and not for looking good. The Jaina canons are so emphatic about the bondage of encumbrance that the very opening verse of the second primary canon - Sūtrakratānga-says, “Anyone who has an iota of sentient or insentient encumbrance, cannot liberate”. For the ascetics the Acārānga goes a step further and says, “The monk who is encumbered is like a householder”. Such being the damaging influence of encumbrance, it is in fitness of things that the Jaina ascetics do everything possible to shed it. The psychic dispositions and cares that help in observing this great vow and enhance its effectiveness are as under:a. An ascetic must be indifferent towards the pleasant or unpleasant words or sounds. b. He must be indifferent towards the pleasant or unpleasant sights. c. He must be indifferent towards the pleasant or unpleasant smells. d. He must be indifferent towards the pleasant or unpleasant tastes, and e. He must be indifferent towards the pleasant or unpleasant touches. So stringent are the five great monastic vows. 6. Rātribhojan Viramana Vrat (The Vow of Refraining From Eating at Night) Besides these five great vows the Jaina clergy also accepts a sixth vow of not eating or drinking at night. The sixth aphorism of the fourth chapter of the famous Daśavaikālikasūtra, that ANAGĀRA VINAYA (THE MONASTIC CONDUCT): 279

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