Notes on Modern Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Oxford

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JAINA ASCETICS.
(c) Restricting Diet (Vṛittisankṣepa alia). An ascetic may vow that for a period of time varying from one day to a month he will only eat five or six different articles of food, or he may vow to eat only one particular thing, failing to obtain which he will fast.
(d) Abstaining from appetising food (Ra-atyāga 2). The ascetic promises to abstain from his favourite food (probably milk, ghi, or molasses) for a certain period.
(e) Bodily austerities (Kayakles'a
1421). An ascetic torments his body in various ways, such as pulling out his hair, wearing insufficient clothing in winter and exposing his body to heat in summer. (f) The avoidance of all temptation (Saṁlinatā ziel 19) is accounted another external austerity, and under this the cramping of limbs by sitting in uncomfortable postures is also included.
(ii) The following six austerities are Interior.
(a) Expiation (Praya cita
). If the ascetic has committed any sin, he must confess it privately to his guru and perform the penance he imposes. Different kinds of penances are prescribed in the Scriptures for different offences. For example, if he has cast a stone (which the Jaina believes to possess one sense) into water (which also possesses one sense) he will be made to atone for the injury he has inflicted on sentient things by fasting or by extra Paḍikamanum.