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The Practice of the Earlier Tîrthankaras
171 सातिचारं तु भग्न-मूलगुणस्य पुनव्रतारोपणात् छेदोपस्थाप्यम। उभयं चैतत सातिचारं निरतिचारं च स्थितकल्प एव, आद्यन्त-तीर्थंकरयोरेवेत्यर्थः । This may be translated as follows:
'Sâmâyika' is of two kinds namely temporary and life long. The former is called temporary during the age of the First and the Last Tirthankaras it being assumed at the time of initiation (Pravrajya), abandons the name Sâmâyika when the renunciation becomes more specialised by the assumption of Chedopasthapya by the faithful ascetic having acquired the knowledge of Sastraparijna adhyayana and the like. The Sâmâyika is life-long in the case of the middle Tirthankaras as well as of those of Videha Ksetra, because beginning with the time of taking Pravâjya, it subsists till the time of life departs.
In the case of the followers of the first and the last Tìrthankara there is the discard of the general Sâmâyika-paryâya followed by resort to purer renunciation of all sinful activities and assumption of more distinct Mahâ-vrâtas which constitute the Chedopasthâpya Samyama. Chedopasthapanani and Chedopasthapyam mean the same thing, namely abandonment of the former status and assumption of the subsequent status. This Chedopasthapana is also of two kinds, namely faultless and faulty of these, it is faultless in the case of a teacher who has acquired the knowledge of the particular Adhyayam by studying the same, or in the case of a disciple of the middle Tirthankaras when he takes Upasampada from the disciples of the first or the last Tirthankaras. It is faulty Chedopasthapya when one breaks the Mula-gunas and assumes the vrâtas once again. Both these kinds of Chedopasthapya, namely, faulty and faultless, hold good only the Sthita-kalpa, th is to say, in the age of the first and the last Tirthankaras only.
Here, we learn without a shadow of doubt that the followers of Pârsvanatha observed Sâmâyika Samyama only all their life, while in the case of the followers of Mahâvîra it formed a temporary phase and when the probationary period was over after the pravrajya, the disciple took Upasthapana by assuming the distinct Mahavrâtas. It envisages two stages of ascetic life, one being called Parvrajya and the other Upasthapana or Upasampadâ, like what we find in Buddhism and also in Christianity called Baptism and
