Book Title: Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism
Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
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34 STUDIES IN BUDDHIST AND JAINA MONACHISM danger, must not gaze even at the paintings or forms of women. If he happens to see them, he should withdraw his face from them as from the sun. He should, in fact, avoid even disfigured and old woman. Not only that, he should not use beds and seats used by women, eunuchs, etc.; tell stories to women in loneliness ; contemplate over women; enjoy a common seat with a woman; take interest in singing, laughing or any other activity of women even from behind a curtain; or recall past pleasures to mind.' Furthermore he should not use a place occupied by householders even for religious purposes, except in cases of emergency', for it is not unlikely that he may also be forced by women of the house for sexual intercourse'. In brief a monk should have no connection with women.
If despite every precaution, a monk fell in with a woman who forced him to have sexual intercourse, then he should keep her on the right path by preaching religious sermons. If he could not succeed in it, then he should endeavour to get rid of her by assuring to come back after disrobing himself or by threatening to self-immolation. In any circumstances, he must not surrender to her desires.?
Besides actual sex experience by intercourse or masturbation, a monk was strictly forbidden to use any direct or indirect method of sexual enjoyment.
ii. No bodily decoration : Normally monks were not expected to seduce woman. Nevertheless, the Order seems to have taken the minutest precaution in order to avoid any ugly instance of the kind. Bodily charm, as it is considered one of the unfailing means to entice a woman, the monks were asked to neglect their bodies completely. Not only external purification like washing the body or garments, teeth-cleansing, nail-cutting, hair-cutting, etc. were disal.
1. Daso, 8,54-56. 2. Thān, 663, pp. 444ab. 3. Ayar (SBE.Vol. XXII), 2.2.1.8-12 (pp. 122-24); Suyg (SBE. Vol. XLV), p 275. 4. Under five circumstances a monk can enter into the royal palace -Ţhan,
415, pp. 311b-312a. 5. Ayār (SBE. Vol. XXII), 1.5.4.4-5 (pp. 48-49). 6. A superstition was ripe in India that a son produced by a monk would
develop extra-ordinary abilities, physical, intellectual and moral. Several
criminal cases were instituted in law courts against this practice. 7. OghN, 421, p. 153a. 8. Vav, 6.8-9; Nis, 1.1-9; 6.19-77; 7.79-91; Byhk, 5.1-4; Dasā, 2nd dasā. 9. veejja nijjaräpehi, āriyam dhammaņuttaran /
jäva sarirabheutti, jallam kāeņa dhārae // Uttar, 2. 37.
