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Āryikās: The Digambara Sādhvis
- Very minute living organisms are to be found in the vagina of a woman, between the breasts, on the navel, beneath the armpits, all of which constitutes an obstacle to the ascetic life.
- If women are purified by right vision and practise austerity, they are free from sin,31
- Their spirit is wayward, by temperament they are unstable, they have their monthly periods32 and are prone to doubt. For these reasons they are not fit subjects for dhyāna.33
643
2. Notes, furnished by Mātāji, indicating the position put forward in certain later texts
Dravya-nāris or female bodies of the karma-bhūmi do not possess any one of the three outstandingly good types of bone
structure.
Women wear clothing and thus cannot attain perfection or Liberation.34
-
The same affirmation is made as regards the bone-structure. Hence women cannot possess the capacity for mental concentration necessary for śukla-dhyāna, the purest form of concentration. 35
31 PSa III, 24, 13* adds that even if, in addition, they know the Scriptures, they cannot succeed in destroying completely all their karmas.
32 This physiological function, in that it could have perturbating effects upon the psyche, might tend to be an obstacle to self-mastery.
33 Cf. Aṣṭaprabhṛta 22-26.
34 Jñānamati, 1976, p. 62, based upon the Acarasāra II, 86, a text of Viranandi of the X-XIth c.
35
Cf. Jñanamati, ibid., p. 63, based upon the Gommațasara I, 32, a text of Nemicandra (P 224.).
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