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JAIN COMMUNITY AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES
Chapter 5.1 THE JAIN COMMUNITY
The Jain community consists of the fourfold order established by Mahavira and is
commonly known as the Jain Sangha. The term Sangha embraces the four orders of
monks (saadhus), nuns (saadhvis), laymen (sraavakas) and laywomen (sraavikaas), in fact the whole Jain community. The Jain Sangha is involved in all major decisions affecting the community and has supreme authority over the individual orders. The ascetic order plays a very important part in Jainism; it observes the teachings of Mahavira rigorously. It is impossible for laymen and women to follow the teachings to the same extent, as they are involved in worldly activities and in earning their livelihood, however, they follow the teachings of Mahavira to the best of their ability.
Throughout the centuries monks have been the scholars and teachers of the Jain faith. Nuns have been much less involved in scholarship but have taken a prominent part in expounding the faith to the laity. The monks have not only produced work of a religious nature but have also created scholarship of importance in science, medicine, mathematics, logic, languages and other fields of study. This tradition continues today. Lay scholarship has also developed considerably in recent times. One has to admire the genius of Mahavira and his followers for the fact that after more than 2,500 years this fourfold organisation of Jains is still very much in evidence. Mahavira respected the Sangha as if it was a Tirthankara and the faithful do likewise. There is both respect and indirect control of one order over the other. The laity respect and learn Jain teachings from the ascetic order, and the monks and nuns respect and listen to the laymen and women.
The career of Jain monks and nuns begins with the ceremony of initiation into asceticism (diksaa) by acceptance of the obligations of the five great vows, and continues unbroken to the end of their lives. The ascetic state is a permanent commitment; the discipline is strict, yet, those who leave ascetic order are few. The monks and nuns inspire the laity to establish temples, upashrayas, libraries and other welfare institutions for the community.
Although the mendicant order is seen as unitary, it has for very many centuries been divided into many stems or groups (gaccha, gana). These groups may take their names from their place of origin, from association with a particular caste, from their founders or from particular points of doctrine or ritual. The gaccha may be subdivided, most commonly into groups studying under particular teachers. References to these divisions of the mendicant orders are found around the eighth and ninth centuries CE and some of these exist today: the Tapaagaccha, Kharataragaccha and some other gacchas can trace the line of succession of their leaders back through a long history. The practice of solitary religious retreat is known in Jainism, but usually the Jain monks and nuns are to be seen as a member of a group, attached to their spiritual leader or guru. Although study, scholarship and preaching are important activities of the mendicant order, the primary aim of the monk or nun is the purification of his or her own soul, and it is to this end that all the austerities and disciplines are directed. The rigours of the mendicant life mean that relatively few people enter it, which is particularly true of the Digambars.
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