________________
THE PATH
107
The person in the tenth stage (anumati-tyāga) refrains from offering or giving advice in worldly matters. He would not even express his agreement or disagreement, approval or dispproval in such matters. He is for all purposes an anchorite or recluse, only that he is still living in the home with other members of his family.
In the eleventh stage, the uddista-tyāga-pratimā, he leaves even the home, renounces every worldly thing and connection, and becomes a wandering monk. He does not accept food specifically prepared for him, but accepts only such food as is offered to him with due respect by a householder who happens to invite him while the latter is on his begging tour. This pratimā has two sub-stages. The first is that of the kșullaka who wears a loin-cloth and keeps a plain cotton scarf to cover the upper part of the body; he dines sitting out of a platter or dish. The second sub-stage is that of the ailaka who gives up wearing the scraf also and keeps only the loin-cloth. He takes food standing out of his own hands. A kşullaka or an ailaka also carries a jug of water for personal cleanliness, a brush of peacock-feathers for harmlessly removing insects, etc., and dusting the ground where he sits or lies down, and a few holy books for study and perusal. Both are wandering recluses. The ailaka's is the last stage of the householder or śrāvaka and the first stage of the regular ascetic. It is, in fact, a qualified and thorough apprenticeship for leading the life of perfect asceticism. Here ends the path of the householder or lay aspirant and begins that of the wholly dedicated seeker, the muni, śramaņa, or nirgrantha. Rules of Asceticism When an ailaka, who is in the last of the eleven stages of gradual renunciatory development of the right conduct prescribed for the lay aspirant, and is virtually a recluse, feels confident that he has had the requisite discipline, sufficient sense-control and self-control, and necessary detachment from
