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CHAPTER SEVEN
the same time proper consideration is given to the possibility that under certain conditions the night-time eating might not occasion more violence than the daytime eating, then too from the point of view of the masses in general-particularly, from the point of view of an ascetic life-the daytime eating is particularly praiseworthy. Briefly speaking, the following are the reasons in support of a view like this :
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(1) From the point of view of health electric light, moonlight or the like might well be advantageous but it is not universal, indivisible and health-giving like sunlight. Hence where both are available then from the point of view of health it is sunlight that is more useful for the masses in general.
(2) The religion of renunciation lies rooted in contentment-from this point of view too it is proper to finish during daytime eating just like other activities appropriate to daytime and to contentedly give rest to the digestive system during night-time. This facilitates proper sleep and the observance of continence-all this resulting in an augmentation of healthiness.
(3) If with a view to contentenent either the daytime eating or the night-time eating has to be chosen then a wakeful, skilled intellect will definitely choose the former. This is the testimony of the life-history of the great saints that have lived upto this day. 1.
The Types of Vrata :
Partial renunciation is aņu-vrata or minor-scale vow, total renunciation is maha-vrata or major-scale vow. 2.
Every person desirous of renunciation refrains from defilements; but not in the case of all such persons is renunciation of one and the same form, and from the point of view of the evolutionary order of stages that is only natural. Hence treating as vrata all refrainment-large or small-from defilements like violence etc. the author briefly divides vratas into two types, viz. (1) Through manas, speech and body to get rid of all forms of a defilement like violence etc.,-that is maha-vrata of the form of
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