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Pravrajya: The Itinerant Life
request hospitality elsewhere, bearing in mind the rules on the subject. As for vastras and pătras, it is easier than in the past to procure them, but one is in no way absolved from observing the rules.
i) Sayya: The dwelling and the place to sleep
The Acaranga-sūtra lists in a precise, detailed and judicious .manner all the factors and circumstances to consider before deciding upon a dwelling and asking the proprietor for permission to occupy it on a temporary basis. One must not accept:
- a dwelling which, on account of its location, would involve one in committing acts of hiṁså, if, for example, there were stocks there of vegetables, fruits or grains or if access to the house were difficult, entailing climbing up a ladder or using other perilous means to reach it, or if the room available were to contain a large amount of water or be used for making a fire;
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- a room which may have been carefully prepared in advance, and whitewashed to receive the sådhvis;
- a centrally situated room, in the middle of the comings and goings of those living there, too little to one side, where in spite of oneself one would be entangled in family intrigues and would have no independence or possibility of withdrawal.18
The Bṛhatkalpa-sūtra gives both similar and complementary directives to guide the sadhvis:
18 Cf. AS II, 2, 1; II, 2, 3, 1-17. Even if the sadhvis are on their own in a house, they must see to it that they are sheltered from the eyes of the inquisitive. At Yeola, a small market-town in Mahārāṣṭra, I met in March 1975 a group of sadhvis who had been unable to lodge in an upāśraya where some munis were already in residence. The śrāvakas had put at their disposal a small one-roomed house with a verandah facing the street. At meal-times when the sadhvis never accept outsiders they would pull across a large curtain which divided the room in two.
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