Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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yathā nadīnadāḥ sarve sāgare yanti samsthitim / tatthaivärraminaḥ sasuce gṛhasthe yänti samsthitim //
Manusmrti 6-89
As the she rivers and she rivers become estable in the sea, the same way all the asramas (stages) depend upon the grhasthäśrama.
Jain tradition on the other hand has only two stages of life one is that of a housholder and the other is of a mendicant. Acarya Ravisena in his Padmacaritam, says -
āśramaśca samutpannaḥ sägäretarabhedataḥ
These two stages were started at the time of Ṛsabhadeva, the first Tirthankara of the Jainas. Of these two, the second one, i.e. life of a mendicant is supreme
Parivajjadu sämaṇṇam jadi icchadi dukkha parimukkham Pravacanasāra - 201
If you want to get rid of miseries or grivences, accept the life of a monk.
In the life of a householder, one is bound to have bondages of many, worldly things, like wife, children, wealth etc. In order to maintain the householder's life, one is bound with the responsibility for killings of many creatures knowingly or unknowlingly, which leads to the bondages of many Ghati Karmas and Aghati Karmas and consequently he remains in this world by way of rebirth.
In order to pave the way for imancipation, the Jain tradition has codified the five small scale vows (anuvratas) As is said before, it is difficult for the housholder to avoid injury to life totally in daily routine of cultivating land, cooking food, grinding corn, cleaning to toilet and so on. To accommodate this, it is recommendaded to deserve the first small vow, i.e. ahimsă anuwrata in which a Jain householder should not injure the mobile beings which have two or more senses. He should avoid intended killings of the beings.
Similarly, as the householder cannot always refrain from all kinds of falsehood, he takes the second small vow of truthfulness to avoid false statements out of extreme affection for people or property, hatred and deluded outlook which might lead to destruction of homes and villages.
The third small vow of the householder is to refrain from taking anything without the owner's consent, including something which has been abandoned by another person and may lead to punishment by the king or to ensured by the people.
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