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THE JAINA ASCETIC
Daily duties.
ascetic, and we have already learnt something of his philosophy and his belief in austerity, but it may be of interest here to record the actual daily life of a Svetāmbara ascetic, as one of their number described it to the writer.
They are supposed to rise about four o'clock, summer and winter, and perform Rāyasi Padikamanui, in which in a set form of Māgadhi words cach monk confesses the sins of the past night, and especially thc taking of any life and any injury he may have inflicted on any sacred thing, or any of the earth, water, fire, air, or vegetable bodies. It is at this time that the laity perform their meditation or sāmāyika, but in many of the Svetāmbara sects a sādhu performs sāmāyika at the time of his initiation and never again.
After padikamaņuṁ he cngages in a search for any insect life that may be sheltering in his clothing. This search, which is called Palevana, is carried out as a religious duty, and any insect found is carefully removed to a place of safety.
The sādhu neither bathcs nor clcanses his teeth; he does these things before his initiation for the last time in his life, but now, without waiting for cither, he leaves the monastery and goes to the temple to perform Darśana. Unlike a layman, he dons no special clothes at the temple gates, but worships in his ordinary oncs. When he enters the temple, he stands in front of the idol and bows down to it, and then performs a mental exercise known as Bhāva pūjā, during which he meditates on the undoing of karma, the qualities of a Tirthařkara, and similar subjects. He now performs Pradakșiņā, circumambulating the shrine either four or seven times. If he do it four times, he meditates on the four gati, namely, whether he will be born as a god, a man, an animal, or a denizen of hell; if he walks round seven times, he thinks how he can best escape dwelling in any of the seven hells.
An ascetic can neither cleanse the idol (jaļa pājā), :10r
