Notes on Modern Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Oxford

Page 49

JAINA ASCETICS.
37
The restraint of the passions is the sixth duty binding 6. Samyama #24, on all monks and nuns.
The seventh duty is to be absolutely truthful in every particular. An ascetic must not tell any "white" or conven7. Satya (4.
tional lies, he must not speak ambig
* · uously, his speech must be free from all egotism and simply consist of the plain unvarnished truth.
8. S'auca dia. The eighth duty is purity. 9. A'kincinya An ascetic must have no possessions.
24115 Ralf. 10. Brahmacarya An ascetic must strictly observe celibacy.
124.
It will be noticed that the last five duties closely resemble the five great vows.
Wandering life. The A'cārānga Sutra says that he who is well provided with these great vows and their clauses is really houseless, and certainly the Jaina ascetic is Anagara (અણગાર).
Both monk and nun must wander from village to village, begging as they go, and never staying at one place
for any length of time. The old command Itineracy. was that they should stay only one night in a village and not more than five in a town, but this they now interpret as permission to stay for a week in a village and a month in a town. During the rainy season, however, they must stay in the same place for four months, lest they should injure any of the insect or plant life which is then so abundant. They must pass each rainy season at a different place, or must at least let three years elapse before they return to the same place.