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The Final Commitment
351
woman, a eunuch or some female animal.53 The texts giving the rules on this subject are repetitive, for great is the danger run by munis in the vicinity of women, as great as that of a mouse in the vicinity of a cat, and, corresponding to this immense danger there is an unparalleled glory awaiting the one who resists feminine charms, who is detached therefrom, for he has surmounted a major obstacle to which all other obstacles are mere trifles!54 In order to give the śramaņas a distaste for women once for all, the example is given of a muni who was seduced and whose life was rendered impossible by his seducer who treated him exactly like a slave.55
The direct consequences of brahmacarya are radical ones and are branded upon the life-style of the sādhvis. Their clothing is plain and simple, modest, white in colour. They wear no jewellery, not even a watch, nor do they use scent, oil or any unguent. They veil their heads and twice a year undergo keśa-luñchana, the plucking out of the hair as a sign of renunciation of every type of vanity or attention paid to the body. 56 Except in exceptional cases, the sādhvis live in groups of not less than three. As to their relationship with munis and with men in general, although they practise hospitality of a very simple sort at certain hours of the day, always as a group, they do not receive men guests aster dusk.57 They do not even go alone to confession in front of their ācārya; at the time of confession one sādhvi is alwalys accompanied by an appointed and discreet second.
Brahmacarya consists in laying aside all disorderly imaginings, all vanity, all self-seeking, it is to have that straight-forward outlook
33 Cf. AS II, 15 (iv); YSa 1, 30-31; in these texts, when applying them to the sadhvis, one inserts the masculine sex instcad.
54 Cf. US XXXII, 13-18; one recalls the prowess of Sthūlabhadra, P 133.
134.
55 Cf. SkrS I, 4, 2.
56 Cf. P 547. 57 Cf. P 538.
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