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Dikșa: Consecration
469
needs and of a determination to contribute to the education and emancipation of women in all walks of life. The gurunis who have allowed their disciples to take part in this venture, especially at its beginning when all was in an embryonic state, have certainly given evidence of great courage. This bold initiative has encounted many obstacles in a very conservative environment, in which woman have often been kept in a position of inferiority. Now after some years and with the evidence before their eyes of clear and very positive results, even the previously reticent are beginning to admit the necessity and benefits of this enterprise. At the beginning of 1980 a second Śramaņi Vidyapitha was opened in the province of Kaccha.
This much, however, must be added: in accordance with the spirit of its founders, this Vidyapitha is open to all Svetāmbara sådhyis, all of whom do in fact follow the same Agamas, the same doctrine and the same rules. However, after long years of loss of contact between the autonomous sampradāyas and gacchas, it is undeniable that a number of secondary rules have brought about divergences in their manner of life. Above all, as regards nearly all the Tapāgaccha sādhvis, it is the ācāryas who still hesitate to allow them to study the majority of the Āgamas.73 Therefore, an inter-sampradaya-gaccha Śramaņi Vidyāpitha is unlikely in the immediate future. 74
c) Śri Pāramărthika Śikṣana Saṁstha:
Institute for spiritual training
The Terapanthis have a very similar institution, with, however its own special character. In 1948 the ācārya, with the agreement of the members of the samgha, decided that the vairāginis, who were to constitute a separate group, an itinerant group attached to that of the ācārya, should be given a training lasting a longer or shorter period. In 1971, when a project for a whole complex was coming into being to
73 Another difficulty would arise over the question of meals, for even within the Tapăgaccha the sadhvis of different groupings cannot take a meal together.
74 Up till now, over the ten-year period, only one Mūrtipūjaka sādhvi has followed courses at the Vidyapitha.
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