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
The Jaina Church, in its effort to follow ahinsa minutely, developed most of the rules to such a height that some of them appear to be superfluous and negligible, while others disgusting and impracticable for ordinary people. The instructions to be followed in case of earth-bodies so that the monks may not run the risk of inflicting injuries to earth-hodies, may be cited as an instance in point,
“The monk or the nun, who is self-restrained, who is devoted to penance and who has renounced sinful acts, sould never by day or by night, alone or in an assembly of monks, asleep or awake, scratch or dig, shake or break, by hand or by foot, by stick or by blade, by pencil or by a bundle of pencils, (any piece of) earth or wall, stone or clod, dusty body or dusty garment; he should not make another scratch, dig, shake or break (any of the above) nor he should consent to another when he is scratching, digging, shaking or breaking, etc. (He should say :) as long as I am alive, I would not give trouble to living beings by mind, by word or by action in any of the three ways, viz. by himself, by others or by consenting others giving the trouble and I abandon and depricate such inclination on the part of my
soul.1
But as a matter of fact, the truth is otherwise. Each and every precept in this respect, when analysed reveals that it has been set forth after a good deal of experiment, and hence is not altogether uncommon in day-to-day life. A reference to an interesting story about the evil consequences due to carelessness in offering food to a nonk will illustrate the case clearly.
A certain Jaina monk, called Dharmaghoșa, while on the begging round stopped at the house of the minister Värttaka. The minister's wife came out with ghee, sugar and soup for the monk. But while she was coming, a drop of soup fell down on the ground, seeing which the monk did not accept the alms. The minister who was watching the scene from a distance could not understand the reason of the monk's return. He, therefore, decided to remain at a distance and watch further.
Now, it so happened, that flies settled upon the drop of sweet soup. Seeing the flies, spiders came there to eat the flies. To devour the spiders, a chameleon rushed in. A cat attacked the chameleon, and a dog seize the cat. Other dogs fell upon the dog and it led finally to the fight between the owners of the dogs. 2
case of
1. Dasv, 4. 7. (p. 7). The same type of instructions are issued in
the remaining five groups-Vide Ibid. 4. 8-12 (pp. 7-9). 2. Quoted from HJM, p. 301; Vitti to Pind N, 627-28, pp. 168a-170b.