________________
THE PATH
103
The lay aspirant is also warded to guard himself against committing certain infringements and transgressions connected with these 'lesser vows' such as, tying up living beings or keeping them in bondage, mutilating them, beating them, overloading them and starving them, in the case of the first vow; preaching falsehood, divulging other people's secret, forgery, misappropriation, and disclosure of a man and wife's secret talk, in the case of the second vow; adulteration, abetment of theft, receiving stolen property, violation of government laws, and use of false weights and measures, in the case of the third vow; avoidable match-making, intercourse with an unchaste married person, prostitution, unnatural offence or sex perversion and inordinate sex desire, in the case of the fourth vow; and to exceed the limits set by oneself with regard to landed property, movable effects and riches, servants, pet animals, and other worldly goods, in the case of the fifth vow. The three guna-vratas, so-called because they are intended to enhance the effect and value of the anuvratas manifold, are dig-vrata, deśa-vrata and anartha-danda-vrata. The first is a lifelong vow to limit one's worldly activities to fixed points in the different spatial directions. The second is a vow to limit such activities for a fixed period only. And, the third vow is not to commit unnecessary of purposeless moral offence, such as, talking ill of others, preaching evil, doing inconsiderate and useless things, manufacturing or supplying instruments of destruction, and reading or listening to bad literature. The four śikṣā-vratas, so-called, because they are intended to prepare the aspirant gradually for the discipline of ascetic life, are sāmāyika, proșadh-opavāsa, bhog-opabhoga-parimāna and atithi-samvibhāga. The first of these is vowing to devote some fixed time every day, once, twice or thrice, preferably thrice, at sunrise, about noon and at sunset, to the contemplation of the self and attainment of equanimity. The second is the vow to keep total fast on the eighth and the fourteenth day of each fortnight of the month. By the third vow the aspirant
