Traverses on Less Trodden Path of Indian Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 188

Code of conduct for monks...
179
These stories are didactic (Upadeśātmaka) in nature. The didactic tone of these stories illustrates the consequences of good and bad deeds. Every story conveys some lesson and exhorts the need of firm faith in religious principles. It is the duty of the monk to reflect on these stories and teach laymen to create interest and faith in religious duties. They are four in number;16 - Akşepaņi- the story which makes one to follow religious path. This kind of story inspires one to perform religious duties. Vik şapani is a kind of story which reduces and annihilates sexual passion. Samvedani gives idea about painful nature of mundane life, and generates intense desire to acquire correct knowledge of reality. Nirvedani is a kind of story which generates spirit of non-attachment to all worldly things. In addition to these stories the monk should always avoid talks about women, their beauty, form and so on (strikathā); about delicious food (bhaktavik arhā), about adventures of a theft (corakathā) and about different countries (janapadakathā) which generate interest about worldly life and pleasure, hence indirectly the cause of attachment.17
Sâma yika, che dopasthāna, pariharavisuddhi, sūkşmasamparaya and yathā. khyāta are five types of caritras (condut) and they are the special rules which should be followed by the monks. 18 Samayika means equanimity and refraining from sin and developing friendliness towards all living beings. The monk should have equanimity of mind and avoid all sinful activities. Chedopasthana is observance of penalties for faults committed through negligence or inadvertence. If a monk commits a mistake in his religious duties, be should observe penalties, confess it in front of a teacher and again engage himself in the pursuit of rightousness, Chedopasthāna really means cutting down his lifespan as a monk who commits a mistake. Parihầyavtsuddhi is refraining from all kinds of injury-physical, mental and vocal. This rule is prescribed to purify the individual soul. Austerity is prescri. bed for cne who is having this caritra. Sūkşmasamparaya is the control of the passions; especially greed is to be reduced to a bare unrecognizable trait and all other passions are to be under the control of a monk. in this stage monk possesses only very minute passions. Yathakhyātaca. ritra implies the characteristics of those monks who have annibilated all of their passions, lusts and desires. When all passions are destroyed, a monk reaches the ideal state which is known as kevali. This ideal state of a monk is called yathākh yatacaritra These five kinds of caritra are considered as the chief ineans of liberation. 19
Dašavidhadharma or ten kinds of religious virtues are the cardinal virtues that are to be cultivated by a monk, who is aspirant of achieving 16. P.R.P.-182-83.
18. Ibid-228. 17. Ibid-183.
19. Ibid-229.