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The śramaņi: The Worker
523
extravagrant imagination that can come to the surface in the course of a relationship between a nirgrantha and a nirgranthi are described realistically and in detail, as are also examples of weaknesses of the flesh and wrongdoings provoked by an attraction for the opposite sex, all of these being misdemeanours that must be punished with no remission. 184 It was probably with the intention of preventing sensual proclivities that prohibitions with regard to all that concerns care of the body have proliferated. Every slip down this slippery slope is punished by the laghu-parihara of one month only for minor offences or by the guru-parihāra for offences such as those against brahmacarya, when the offender has succumbed in a serious way.185 Among the list of other infringements to which the same guru-parihara is to be meted out, one notices: anything that may affect the harmony of the community-life, such as lack of docility in one's attitude to the guru (guruņi); 186 careless behaviour, lack of proper attentiveness to sick members.187
- Laghu-parihāra of four months: for subtle forms of deceit or vanity, for example, for causing others to attend to one's needs when one is in good health;188 for asserting that one is capable of being an ācārya;189 or for arrogance of spirit, which evidences itself in showing lack of respect for the doctrine, belittling the dharma and praising
adharma. 190
184 Ibid., VI; VII; VIII, 11.
185 Ibid., III, 16-67; XI, 11-63.
186 Ibid., X, 1-4.
187 Ibid., X, 40-43.
188 Ibid., XIII, 39-42.
189 Ibid., XVII, 135 190 Ibid., XI, 9-10.
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