Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 74

Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India
vratas, four sikṣāvratas and eleven pratimas, a house-holder seeks permission from his relatives to renounce completely mundane affairs and became a Jaina monk. Then after worshipping the pañca parameṣṭhins, viz., arhanta, siddha, ācārya, upādhyāya and sadhu, he requests the Ganin to admit him into his order. Being accepted by the Ganin, he pulls out his hair and becomes a naked ascetic, according to the Digambara traditions. An illuminating definition of Jaina śramana is to be found in the Pravacanasāra of Kundakunda and the Mulācāra of Vaṭṭakera which may be regarded as the practical manual for a novice Digambara-Jaina willing to embrace asceticism. The statement of the Pravacanasāra runs thus-"He is a śramana who has no desires in this world and no attachment for the next whose diet and tourings are proper and who is free from passions. He advises that an ideal śramaṇa, if he desires for release from misery, should always live with an ascetic of merits or possessing more merits."'5
What apparently distinguishes a Jaina monk from a laity is his itinerant living with no abode as his own and his having no possessions or paraphernalia beyond those required for his religious observances. In their outward form and equipment we find different schools among the Jaina monks. The Digambara monk, who goes about naked, has a Kamandalu (a gourd pot) and a bunch of peacock feathers. But if he belongs to the lower stage, he has minimum clothing to cover his shame. A Svetambara monk is clad in white robes; and he is equipped with a staff, a bunch of wool and wooden pots. They differ here and there in the rules of outward behaviour which affect their mode of begging, clothing, touring, eating, residence etc. which we discuss in the subsequent pages. But the inner religious life however, is fundamentally the same. Even in some cases they agree on the qualifications essential for monkhood, and other essential requisites. Their means differ from one another, but their ultimate realisation is identical, i.e., to achieve liberation.
While qualifying a true sage', the Acaranga-sūtra mentions that "He who in the world, comprehends and renounces the causes of sin, relating to earth, water, fire, plants, animals and wind is a true sage." He who sincerely performs all duties by these methods, attains purity and gets of all miseries. The exertion in righteousness consists in seventy-three processes, as preached by Mahāvīra, each helping the succeeding one, beginning with samvega (desire
46