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272
TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
Question : If an agarin is so called because he is afflicted with worldly desires then how can such a one be called a vratin?
Answer : Broadly speaking, just as a man in fact resides in his own house or in some such fixed place and yet under certain definite conditions it is said about him that he resides in that particular city, similarly a person who while yet afflicted with worldly desires is associated with vratas in a small measure can on that account be called a vratin even. 14.
An Account of the Vratin of the Type Agārin :
He who is aņuvratadhārin—that is, one committed to a minor-scale observance of the vratas-is a vratin of the type agārin. 15.
He is also committed to an observance of the vratas designated digvirati, deśavirati, anarthadandavirati, sāmāyika, pausadhopavāsa, upabhoga-paribhoga-parimāņa, atithisaṁvibhāga. 16.
And he also undertakes a performance of saṁlekhanā - unto death. 17.
The householder who is not in a position to undertake a full-scale observance of the vratas like non-violence etc. but who is possessed of a tendency to refrainment from worldly enjoyment, such a person, while yet conforming to the limitations imposed on a householder accepts the vratas on a small scale; such a householder is called a layman committed to a minor-scale observance of the vratas.
The vratas accepted with a view to full-scale observance are called mahāvratas and since the vow taken in connection with them refers to a total commitment there obtains no difference of degree in the case of such a vrata; but when these vratas are accepted on a small-scale then since smallness can be of various degrees the vow taken in connection with one of them is possibly of many different types. However, the aphorist, without entering into the variety that thus pertains to each single minor-scale vrata, describes as one minor-scale vrata each of the vratas non-violence
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