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[Some Jain Concepts and Conduct
restrain his mind, speech and body in doing a work or getting it done. It is not necessary for him to abstain from giving his consent to what is being done.
Unlike the mahāvratas which are sometimes four only as in the times of the twenty two Teertharkaras preceding Mahāvīra, the asuvratas are always five. As regards the meaning of 'anu' in the word aņuvrata, it stands for partial as distinguished from ‘mahā' Meaning full. It is said that the aņuvratas are so called because they are minor (laghu) vrata as compared, with the mahāvratas which are major vows. An aņuvrata moreover is practiced by a person in a lower guṇasthāna, compared to a monk established in a higher guṇasthāna. The aņuvratas are thus only a makeshift arrangement subject to up gradation according to the ability of the observer.
As distinguished from the mahāvratas the aņuvratas are concerned only with the abstinence from causing injury to gross living being (two sensed or higher organisms).
In the case of vratas other than Ahimsā the implication of the aņuvratas are to be explained differently in order to distinguish them from the corresponding mahāvratas. The five aņuvratas are regarded as the mūlaguna in the svetāmbara tradition,
The eight mūlaguņas in Digambara tradition : the earlier Digambara Ācāryas like Samantabhadra & Jinasena included the five aņuvratas in their list of mūla guņas. But Amrtacandra & others gave a different list, which mentioned abstinence from the five udumbers. The remaining three mūlaguņas which are common to all the digambara list are abstinences from meat, alcohol and honey. Jinasena and others mentioned gambling instead of honey.
In addition to the five mūla guņas mentioned above
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