________________
164
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS pleasant way, and is spoken only when he thinks that it is beneficial to the person to whom it is spoken.
3. He does not take anything which is not given to him by its owner. And he only takes those things which are necessary for the maintenance of the body. That is a general statement. Now we have a more detailed one. Things which are given to him by the owner and which he accepts may be either :
(1) Inanimate. He does not accept any inanimate thing that is not given to him by its owner, such as books, clothes, needles, cotton, drugs, etc. etc.
(2) Animate. He would not accept an animate object even if the owner offers it, such as a bird or a dog. In the case of animate objects, it is true that the owners may be willing to give or part with it, but then "Is the animal willing to give his body over to me?" would be the question that would arise; and if the animal were willing, still it would not be right, the animal would be insane in not claiming its freedoms. Therefore the teacher does not accept animate objects even if offered by the owner. (3) If anything
made specially for the teacher, such as an article of food, he will not accept it.
(4) While a thing may not have been specially prepared for the teacher (guru), still if that guru's guru thinks that he ought not to have some special thing, then if the layman offers that thing to the young guru, it ought not to be accepted. This much of obedience is prescribed by the Jaina philosophy. He does not, however, obey everything implicitly; for instance, he would not obey if told to kill. The reason he will not accept food that has been specially prepared for him is that by doing so he shares in the karma of producing the article. He always goes unexpectedly to the house.
4. He has entirely given up the sex passion. This is the fourth characteristic which the teacher must have in order to be able to tell us the truth.
5. He does not own any property, that is in the sense of ownership as understood in law. His clothing is given to him but
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
