Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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STUDIES IN BUDDHIST AND JAINA MONACHISM
getting a good crops in the new year, thatched his house anew in order to face the onslaught of the heavy rain and mended his plough, etc. for cultivation. As such it was natural for the people to lose faith in the monks, if their hopes and ambitions were shattered in case of draught."
It is evident from the above statement that the procedure of entering upon the retreat of both the systems was almost identical. Both the systems prescribed scanning and sweeping the residence and getting water and food ready. It is also revealed that the monks belonging to both the Orders were not at all prepared to overlook the interests of lay-people or to displease them by their activities and thereby lose their faith and sympathy. Besides these similarities, there were differences too. The formal resolution of the monk' was the special feature of the Buddhist way of entering upon the retreat and it was most probably a safeguard against the latitude to break the retreat under certain conditions, so that the monks might not take undue advantage of the same. So also, the Jaina Order put a brake upon the monks by enjoining upon them to come to the residence latest by the second quarter of the day, so that they might not come to the residence very late in the evening or in the night and live there without examining and sweeping the place properly because of darkness.
(0) The indispensability of the Retreat In both the Orders, it was binding on all monks and nuns without any exception to keep retreat. Particularly the Buddhist Vinaya did not permit a monk or a nun not willing to observe it to leave the residence intentionally. If anybody did so, it was an offence on one's part.2 Even the Buddha and the Mahāvīra observed the rule strictly. Both the sources furnish us with a list of the places where they spent their respective rainy seasons. The places where the Buddha is said to have spent his forty-six successive rainy seasons after preaching the first sermon at Rsipatana-mrgadāva, the modern Saranatha were : No. of Vassavāsa
Name of the places First
Rşipatana Next three
Rājagsha Fifth
Vaisali
1. Curni to Dasāk, 8. 14-15, p. 54b. 2. MV, 3. 2. 2-3, pp. 144f.