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Antima Suddhi: The Final Purification
always and ceaselessly repeat with conviction the Namaskāra-mantra, give counsel to the others, a counsel that bears the mark of a maturity acquired in the course of her long experience. She lives already in that final simplicity which is unifying, peaceful, serene, the culmination of the ascetic life.9
The Terapanthi sädhvis have at Lăḍanūṁ, ever since their foundation, a Seva Kendra, or service-centre, for aged and sick sădhvis, an institution that is unique among the śramaņis. Each year, turn and turn about, a group of sådhvi volunteers is attached to this
centre.
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The Seva Kendra is a large house in the middle of a vast courtyard, in a quiet part of this small town. On the ground floor there is a large hall for pravacanas, with spacious verandas where the rite of the åvasyakas takes place at the end of the day. The vairāginis of the Samstha come for the vandana. The sadhvis reside on the first floor. In 1978, they numbered twenty-two sadhvis, the majority of them aged and one blind. The sadhvis who waited upon them numbered ten. All had been taken into consideration ahead of time by the ācārya, so that the aged sådhvis might have healthy and manageable living conditions, without abandoning their ascetic practice. Each has a place of her own in which to take rest, where she can also keep a few objects on a shelf; certain ones have a small cell, others share a larger one. They take their meals on a large veranda. In accordance with their physical possibilities and capacities they keep themselves occupied. The volunteer sadhvis spend their days with them, and go on gocari for them, but sleep in separate rooms.
As the Seva Kendra is, since the beginning of the gana, the one and only permanent centre and since the Terapanthis keep up to date without fail a sort of chronicle, their precious archives are kept in that place. They are consevered in metal cupboards and are carefully
9 Mention must be made at this point of Mahāsati Śri Pannādevi, who has been residing for the last several years in a Dilli upāśraya. She is an example of a śramani who, at more than 90 years, is nearing the end of a long life in great serenity of spirit, which radiates to all, in the midst of a few of her disciples who hold her in reverence and respect; cf. P 620 ff.
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