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to him by the owner and which he accepts may be either :
(1) Inanimate. He does not accept any inanimate thing that is not given to him by its owner, such as books, clothes, needles, cotton, drugs, etc. etc.
(2) Animate. He would not accept an animate object even if the owner offers it, such as a bird, or a dog. In the case of animate objects, it is true that the owner may be willing to give or part with it, but then “Is the animal willing to give his body over to me?” would be the question that would arise, and if the animal were willing, still it would not be right, the animal would be insane. Therelore the teacher does not accept animate objects even if offered by the owner.
(3) If anything is made specially for the teacher, such as an article of food, he will not accept it.
(4) While a thing may not have been specially prepared for the teacher (guru), still if that guru's guru thinks that he ought not to have some special thing, then if the layman offers that thing to the young guru, it ought not to be accepted. This much of obedience is prescribed by the Jain philosophy. He does not, however, obey everything implicitly, for instance, he would not obey if told to kill. The reason we will not accept food that has been specially prepared for hini is that, by doing so he shares in the karma of producing the article. He always goes unexpectedly to the house.
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