Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

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all those who respected him not to bow down to him but to embrace him with affection.
3. He renounced all titles (generally given to Jain saints).
4. The practice of constantly covering ones mouth with a muffler (Muha patti) observed strictly by the Saints belonging to Sthanakvasi Sect was not proper as it leads to unhygienic conditions. So he would cover his mouth only on some specified occasions.
5. The accepted tradition amongst the Jain saintly order that a male saint, however, young and unexperienced he may be, should never bow down to a Jain nun, however old and experienced she may be, is wholly irrational, grossly derogatory to womanhood and against the basic Jain doctrines and hence he would not follow the same.
6. The practice of uprooting the hair of head and face by hand is as disgusting as the old practice of being a “Sati” (widow burning alive on the death of her husband). Hard penances do not always lead to soul's upliftment. Many a times such practices generate a false sense of ego and thus become hindrances in the spiritual progress. He would, therefore, renounce this practice.
7. Cleanliness of a body is as important as the cleanliness of mind and soul. Hence the members of the saintly order should take bath and keep their clothes clean. The scriptures have repeatedly emphasised the necessity of cleanliness and have prohibited bath which is taken only with a view to adorn the body. Want of cleanliness produces germs and hence cleanliness is more conducive to the observance of non-violence.
8. He said, he realised from introspection and experience that the lives of those who have entered the saintly order should be devoted to the social good because a saint, when he leaves the worldly life, he enters a life which is universal and belongs to the
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