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THE ANUVRATA MOVEMENT
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he thinks that to adopt religion for glorification here on earth or to practise it as a preparing ground for a better future in the next-both are wrong. The significance of religion for the individual soul is such that when practised for the sake of self-purification beneficial results in this world (in society) and in the next accrue automatically. Thus the insistence on the importance of the individual in religion is not born out of disregard for society or concern for a world to come but out of the conviction that when the individual is purified society gets purified as a result.
view of religion explains also the non-sectarian nature of the Aņuvrata movement.
At the time the movement was initiated, Ācārya Tulasi himself was considered to be an orthodox philosopher and as the leader of the Jaina sect. Since the name of the movem
sect. Since the name of the movement also was derived from the Jaina tradition it looked as if the Ācārya was only trying to propagate a sectarian religion, though with a new key. The question of a different nomenclature which would not smack of a narrow derivation from a particular tradition, -however rich the tradition itself may be-was considered but it was found that no other name would reflect the spirit of the movement. The Ācārya was more keen on an action-oriented movement than on giving to the world an imposing nomenclature to a philosophy of individual regeneration. The term aņuvrata was considered to represent the conviction that small vows can effect big changes. The movement was however named Aņuvrata Sangha, to start with, with the modification of it as Aņuvrata movement coming later on. The base of the movement is ultimately to be traced to a nine-point programme and a thirteen-point scheme which were experimentally tried and accepted by twenty-five thousand people. The nine-point programme was : (1) not to think of committing suicide; (2) not to use wine and other intoxicating drugs; (3) not to take meat and eggs; (4) not to indulge in a big theft; (5) not to gamble; (6) not to indulge in illicit and unnatural intercourse; (7) not to give any evidence to favour a false case and untruth : (8) not to adulterate things nor to sell
2 See Muni Nathmal, Ācārya Tulasi : His Life and Philosophy (Churu : Adarsh Sabitya Sangh, 1968), p. 67
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