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SPIRITUAL PURSUIT OUTSIDE THE ORDER
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duced an element of discipline amongst the monks It is not indispensable to organisation Discipline and spiritual pursuit belong to different genres The aspirants are also prone to fall in different categories Some of them combine discipline with spiritual pursuit, while others like to keep it unencumbered with discipline The pursuants of an unhampered course devise their own method Other pursuants like to be initiated in the organisation and thereafter pursue their course independently Lord Mahavira made allowance for all such varieties of individuals He classed them in three categories 1 Pratyeka Buddha, Those who never bound their pursuit
with the organisation 2 Sthavirakalpı-Pursuants within the monastic order
Jinakalpi. Those who quit the order and pursue spiritualism
Even during the days of Lord Parshwa this classification was in vogue Monstic order was the centre of spiritual pursuit Those who so desired were allowed to pursue their course alone If they sought to be enrolled in the order after completing their pursuit, they were welcome Lord Mahavira was never obsessed with order His sole concern was with spintual pursuit The object of an aspirant is to achieve progress in the spiritual sphere, singly or collectively To live in organised life is as reprehensible as to live alone, if spiritual practices are neglected if organisation is deemed to be a sine qua non, any relinquishment of it is inconceivable Once an individual joins it, he cannot quit it If one abandons it, one cannot stage a come-back Lord Mahavira kept the entrance to and exit from the order open If one sought to join the order for the sake of spiritual pursuit, one was welcome to do so But if one chose to quit the order for pursuing spiritualism one was equally free to do so
The codes of conduct for the subscribers to the order and for those who were free were different The subscribers were supposed to help one another mutually The unham
