Sannyasa Dharma

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

Page 35

SANNYASA DHARMA
The following qualifications are necessary to entitle a householder to be ordained a saint:
1. he should have been born in an Aryan country, *
2. he should belong to one of the three higher varnas † (castes),
3. he should not be wanting in a limb, that is, he should have all his limbs intact and whole,
4. he should not be a political offender, or absconder,
5. he should not have offended against the customs of his people,
6. he should have obtained the permission of his kindred to renounce the world and to take to sannyūsa, $
7. he should be devoid of infatuations,
* The idea is that in a pon•Aryau country there will be no facility in respect of food and the like which are necegsary for the maintenance of the sannyūsa dharma, It is pointed out in the Lab. dhisara that a person born in non. Aryan lands may adopt sannyası when in an Aryan country.
+ A sudra, of course, cannot obtair salvation from a sudra body; but it would seem that he is not disentitled to be admitted to the order of saints. This means that he cannot rise above the apavāda mirga and enter into the utsarga marga.
entitled to be admitea
I The obtaining of such permission is not absolately necessary, though enjoined in the first instance. The idea is that the saint should cive rise to no regrets in the hearts of himself and his people, but if one's kindred cannot be brought rouud to allow one to say good-bye to them in the best of spirits, one should not refrain from seeking the highest good merely because of their refusal to consent to the parting