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474
The Unknown Pilgrims
since she has renounced all blameworthy activity. Let us now see how these promises find concrete expression in her daily life.
a) The teaching of the Uttarådhyayana-sutra
i) The ten sämācāris, rules of right conduct:3
1. āvaśyaki: before leaving the upāśraya to go out and after the vandana to the guruņi, a sadhvi repeats: "āvassiyā, āvassiyā, āvassiyā," indicating thus that she is going to fulfil a duty;
2. naisedhiki: on her return to the upăśraya, she says: "nisihiyā, nisihiyā, nisihiyā", indicating that, the duty having been done, she has now nothing more to do with the outside world with all that that may represent in the way of attachments and faults;
3. áprcchanā: she asks permission from the guruņi or a senior sådhvi before undertaking any task whatever,
4. pratiprcchană: she asks permission concerning the duties others are to undertake;
5. chandanā: she invite the guruņi and other sădhvis to share the food she has been given or to use objects that she has at her disposal;
6. icchåkära: she offers spontaneously to do the task of another sådhvi or respectfully requests another sadhvi to replace her in some task that has been assigned to her;4
3 US XXVI, 1-7. It is not possible to render each of these words by a single English equivalent nor to limit oneself to the scarcely formulated explanation of the US; we must take into account the context and the practice as transmitted by tradition. The brief explanations given here are based on Mahasati Candanā's translation of the text into Hindi. We must also take note that, after the DS, the US is the Sutra that the new sādhvi must study and assimilate. This Sūtra will be our guide in this part.
4 Icchakāra refers to either one of these two intentions.
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