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Dikṣā: Consecration
451
The sādhvis who receive the request of a vairāgiņi show considerable prudence, neither encouraging her in a facile way nor minimising the difficulties of the ascetic life. They are aware that, in certain cases, they must avoid giving the parents any occassion to suspect them of luring their daughter away. At the same time they knwo how to speak convincingly, how to show that theirs is the best of all lives and to inspire the young with enthusiasm for a high ideal.20 Except in cases where it is clear that the candidate does not possess the needed temperamental qualities or where the family is strongly opposed, the sădhvis permit a candidate to come and live for a while with them, after which a final decision will be taken.
B - The Vairāgini: The renunciate
A vairāgini is a candidate permitted to share the life of the sādhvis.! These latter call her by her name, but she has already abandoned this world, she has entered into a state which is admittedly still an intermediate one, but which is oriented towards a definitive commitment; she has left all in order to listen, learn, take a first step, prepare herself. At the same time, she has not pledged herself, she can retire when she wishes. She follows the sādhvis' rules except for the quest for food and she takes her meals with the local śråvakas.
This stage is a very important one, being that of preparation for dikṣā, and is characterised by a combination of two types of teaching, that of the guruņi and that of the Daśavaikälika-sútra.
a) The teaching of the guruņi
At every moment the guruņi is at hand to guide, instruct and train the vairāgiņi with matemal care. There is no prescribed time or limit for this period, which may last anything from several months to several years. Everything depends on the age, character, level of education - certain ones pursue courses of study or prepare for official examinations - and, above all, on the inner disposition of the vairāgiņi and on the guruņi, on her method of training and teaching. She refers
20 The biographies relate several interesting dialogues between a guruņi and a vairāgiņi.
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