Book Title: Sramana 2008 07
Author(s): Shreeprakash Pandey, Vijay Kumar
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi

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Page 117
________________ Śramaņa, Vol 59, No. 3/July-September 2008 can get rid again of the sin of transgression, if one atones for it afterwards (by austerities), and it is as a matter of fact, not a case of Avirati (i.e., the state of not being under any Pratyākhyāna whatsoever, or the state of religious licentiousness)." 112 : "The body is the instrument of renunciation. How could a man perform renunciation without it? Therefore, it is desirable to preserve the body for the sake of making one's saniyama increase." Thus, even the rules laid down for monks for these two stanzas refer to monastic conduct stand under the immediate influence of this principle. The monk, it is true, is supposed to fast and to renounce, to observe absolute chastity, to mediate, and to suffer all kinds of inconveniences and hardships, but he has on the other hand, to follow special prescriptions as to how to accept within narrow limits, pure food and other requisites offered, how to walk and how to sleep, how to sit and how to speak, how to serve fellowascetics, and how to receive their service, how to preach and how to dispute, how to work and how to move in the world as it is, with its saints and its criminals, its laymen and laywomen, its Hindus and Bauddhas, its scholars and peasants, and its king and beggars. - - In short, he is taught how to regulate his whole bodily and mental activity in order to be in constant and undisturbed harmony with all that lives around him, under all conditions given. He is shown the way how to secure the optimum of his own personal happiness in such a manner as to contribute even thereby to the welfare of the world; or how to help making the world more perfect by his own perfection. Jain Education International Thus, the very secret of Jainism is contained in the three important words "Ahimsa," or Non-injury, "Samyama" or Renunciation, and "Tapa," or Austerity; words which the famous stanza of the Daśavaikālika Sūtra (1/1) so beautifully groups together as essence of Dharma, i.e., Religion : For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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