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Āryikās: The Digambara Sãdhvis
653
ascetic life, they are able to do so with complete generosity, and in their view persection demands, precisely, the wearing of their own dress; to abandon it would be to commit a grave fault. From the moment, as Mātāji says, when they start to follow their rule of life, their conduct is honourable, their commitment fully valid. No one, not even the ācārya, imposes upon them any interdict in regard to their training and spiritual cndeavour. They may study the texts of the sages of their tradition and translate them, in the same way as the munis do.50 Mātāji is the first to have translated from Sanskrit into Hindi an important text of logic, the first part (which in itself comprises a voluminous tome of 445 pp.) of the Aștasahastri of Ācārya Vidiyānanda. Those who have the capacity can give pravacanas, which testisies, on the one hand, to their knowledge of the doctrine and their ability to expound it and, on the other, to the confidence which they cnjoy within the saṁgha.
B - Dikṣā-vidhi: The rite of Consecration
Dikṣā has exactly the same import as regards life-commitment, to whichever sampradāya the vairāgiņi belongs. However, the rite differs. The rite proper to each sampradāya embodies in its structure and contents the special features of the ideal followed within a specific community. A vairāgini who requests admission as an äryikā knows, but as yet only from outside, what the demands of this way of life are. From the moment the dikşă commences, she is led step by step along the new path that she is desirous of following; each act, each word, each gesture, each hymn of praise, each promise is a token of her entry once and for all into the samgha of the aryikās. Omitting repetition of certain essential features already described and elements common to both traditions, let us try to observe the successive moments experienced by a vairāgini who, by the rite of dikṣā, is being consecrated as an äryikā.51
50 The Tapăgaccha sādhvis, as is known, do not enjoy the same latitude in regard to these pursuits. However, they are not debarred from Liberation; cf. P 493-494.
51 Cf. Dharma-dhyāna-dipaka, pp. 376-386; Jñānamati, 1976, pp. 14-17.
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