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Sugandha: Sweet Fragrance
595
her pravacanas there as elsewhere - since her gaccha permits this. All flocked to listen to her and in this way she helped lessen a stubborn prejudice against women.
Her charism being such, delegations from all regions, from towns and villages alike, come to find her months in advance to beg her to come and spend the cäturmāsya with them. It's one never-ending procession! She is sometimes highly embarrassed, for she must choose, decide, decline...Sometimes, to make sure that she will pass the căturmāsya in a particular place, the inhabitants thereof take advantage of her passing through on vihāra to hold her as prisoner until she promises to remain. At Indaura, a number of śrāvakas of all sampradāyas went on telling her for three whole days: "We will not let you leave!" Now she was meant to be passing the cāturmāsya in a village. She endeavoured, but in vain, to explain. A delegation of śrāvakas set off for Ujjayini to request permission from the ācārya, who to the immense joy of all acquiesced and they retained her at Indaura!
It is not difficult to see that, especially during the căturmāsya, the local saṁgha is very busy; they must continually receive crowds of visitors, provide lodging for śrāvakas and śrāvikās. We read how at Ratalāma, for example, they set to well in advance in order to foresee every possible need: a paņdāla (marquee) for the daily pravacanas, houses available for accommodating travellers, the requisite foodstuffs and personnel to feed all that crowd. 44
How to describe the reception given to Sadhvi Vicaksana in her ancestral home, Pipada, and the place of her birth, Amaravati, when she returned there forty-two years after her dikṣā? A delirium of joy! They took advantage of her stay to celebrate her birthday on a grand scale, for several days. Invitations were sent out to every member of the local saṁgha, scattered though they were in various places. came. With her usual simplicity, she, an ascetic, an anagāri, let it all happen. It was a unique opportunity for one and all to rejoice, to fraternise, to experience renewal: songs, poems, speeches, gifts,
44 Cf. Ibid., p. 279.
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