Sannyasa Dharma

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

Page 58

SANNYASA DHARMA
strengthens the foe. As said in the Householders' Dharma :
* Let him who would laugh at the dirty condition of the boly of the Jaina saint remember that in its nature, his own body is but a basket of stinking unsightly flth, covered over with leathern parchment. There is yet an important distinction between his body and that of the saint, which consists in the fact that while his own carcass is filled to the full, with the refuse resulting from unrestrained sense. indulgence, the saint's contains less filth, both quantitatively and qualitatively, owing to the control which he puts on his senses. The difference between their bodies is then reduced to this that the saint's is actually the purer of the two, though the other appears to be more attractive outwardly. And, so far as the purity of the soul is concerned, the man who scorns the saint is nowhere as compared with him whom he likes to scorn, since the very fact of ridiculing a true saint is an indication of gross ignorance and sin. The dirty, untidy appearance of a muni (ascetic) is a necessary step in the path of progress, and is unavoidable at a certain stage."
SLEEPING ON THE GROUND. – The saint should not sleep like the ordinary men and women of the world. His bed must be the hard ground, in keeping with the other aspects of his ascetic's life. He, therefore, rejects the soft couch, the comforting mattress and pillows, and all else that will stand in the way of his skin from becoming dead to all external sensa. tions. The sleep of the sadhu is of short duration ; be slumbers, like a log of wood, for about four hours, spending the rest of the night in self-contemplation, Before lying down to rest he purifies the ground on which he is to sleep by carefully removing from it all forms of insect life with his feather whisk.
REFRAINING FROM CLEANING THE TEETH. - For the reasons which have been explained in connection with