Begging For A Couch-2nd Bk- 2nd Lecture-2nd Lesson

[Anne Terri]

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - Jainism

Begging For A Couch-2nd Bk- 2nd Lecture-
SECOND LESSON

Some householders are of clean habits and the mendicants, because they never bathe, are covered with uncleanliness; they smell after it, they smell badly, they are disagreeable, they are loathsome. Hence the householders, with regard to the mendicant, put off some work which otherwise they would have done before, and do some work which otherwise they would have put off.

Hence it has been said to the mendicant, &c.,

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that he should not use, for religious postures, &c., a lodging used by the householder. (1)

This is the reason: While a mendicant lives together with householders, the householder might, for his own sake, have prepared something to eat. Then, afterwards, he might, for the sake of the mendicant, prepare or dress food, &c., and the mendicant might desire to eat or drink or swallow it.

Hence it has been said to the mendicant, &c. (see above). (2)

This is the reason: While the mendicant lives together with a householder, there may be ready wood cleft for the use of the householder. Then, afterwards, (the householder) might, for the sake of the mendicant, cleave or buy or steal wood, kindle or light, by rubbing wood on wood, the fire-body, and the mendicant might desire to dry or warm himself at, or enjoy, the fire.

Hence it has been said to the mendicant, &c. (see above). (3)

When in the night or twilight a mendicant, to ease nature, leaves the door open, a thief, watching for an occasion, might enter. It is not meet for the mendicant to say: This thief enters or does not enter, he hides himself or does not hide himself, he creeps in or does not creep in, he speaks or does not speak; he has taken it, another has taken it, it is taken from that man; this is the thief, this is the accomplice, this is the murderer, he has done so 1. The householder will suspect the ascetic, the mendicant,

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who is not a thief, to be the thief. Hence it has been said to the mendicant, &c. (4)

A monk or a nun should not use, for religious postures, &c., sheds of grass or straw which contain eggs, living beings, &c. But they may do so if they contain few eggs, few living beings, &c. (5)

A mendicant should not stay in halting-places, garden houses, family houses, monasteries, where many fellow-ascetics are frequently arriving.

1. If the reverend persons continue to live in those places after staying there for a month 1 in the hot or cold seasons or for the rainy season (he should say): 'O long-lived one! you sin by overstaying the fixed time.' (6)

2. If the reverend persons repeatedly live in halting-places, &c., after staying there for the proper time, without passing two or three intermediate months somewhere else, (he should say): 'O long-lived one! you sin by repeating your retreat in the same place.' (7)

3. Here, in the east, west, north, or south, there are, forsooth, some faithful householders, householders' wives, &c., who are not well acquainted with the rules of monastic life (with regard to the fitness of lodging-places); nevertheless they believe in, perceive, are convinced of, (the merit of) giving lodging to mendicants. They (accordingly) give lodging-places for the sake of many Sramanas and Brâhmanas, guests, paupers, and beggars, in workshops, chapels, temples, assembly halls, wells, houses or halls for shopkeeping or for keeping or building carriages, distilleries, houses where Darbha-grass,

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bark, trees, wood or charcoal are being worked, houses on burial-places, rooms for retirement near the place of sacrifice 1, empty houses, hill-houses, caves, stone-houses, or palaces. He should say to those reverend persons who live in such-like places as workshops, &c., together with other guests: 'O long-lived one! you sin by living in a place frequented by other sectarians.' (8)

4. Here, in the east, &c. They accordingly give, &c. (all as in §8 down to) palaces. If the mendicants come there while the other religious men do not come there, they sin by living in a place not frequented by other mendicants. (9)

5. In the east, west, north, or south there are faithful householders, viz. a householder or his wife, &c., who will speak thus: 'It is not meet that these illustrious, pious, virtuous, eloquent, controlled, chaste ascetics, who have ceased from sexual intercourse, should dwell in a lodging which is âdhâkarmika 2: let us give to the mendicants the lodgings which are ready for our use, viz. workshops, &c., and let us, afterwards, prepare lodgings for our own use, viz. workshops, &c.' Hearing and perceiving such talk, if the reverend persons frequent such-like lodgings, viz. workshops, &c., and live in them which are ceded by other people (they should be warned): 'O long-lived one! that (lodging is infected by the sin called) vargakriyâ.' (10)

6. Here, in the east, &c. (see § 8 all down to) they give lodging-places for the sake of many Sramanas and Brâhmanas, guests, paupers, and beggars, after having well counted them, in workshops, &c.

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[paragraph continues] If the reverend persons frequent such-like lodgings, viz. workshops, &c., and live in them which are ceded by other people (they should be warned): 'O long-lived one! that (lodging is infected by the sin called) mahâvargakriyâ.' (11)

7. Here, in the east, &c. They accordingly give, for the sake of many sorts of Sramanas 1, after having well counted them, lodging-places, viz. workshops, &c. If the reverend persons frequent such-like lodgings, viz. workshops, &c., and live in them which are ceded by other people (they should be warned): 'O long-lived one! that (lodging is infected by the sin called) sâvadyakriyâ.' (12)

8. Here, in the east, &c. They accordingly prepare, for the sake of one sort of Sramanas, lodgings, viz. workshops, &c., for which purpose great injury is done to the earth, water, fire, wind-bodies, plants, and animals, great injury, great cruelty, great and manifold sinful acts; by wasting cold water or strewing (the ground), smearing it with cowdung, shutting the doors and securing the bed, lighting a fire. If the reverend persons frequent such-like lodgings, viz. workshops, &c., and lead in such ceded lodgings an ambiguous 2 life (they should be warned): 'O long-lived one! that (lodging is infected by the sin called) mahâsâvadyakriyâ.' (is)

9. But if the lodgings, viz. workshops, &c., are

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prepared by the householders for their own sake under the same circumstances as detailed in the preceding paragraph, and the reverend persons frequent such-like lodgings, they lead, in those lodgings, an unambiguous life. 'O long-lived one! that (lodging is infected by the very small sin called) alpasâvadyakriyâ.'

This is the whole duty, &c.

Thus I say. (14)

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Footnotes

125:1 For if he gives warning of the thief, the warner or the thief might be slain; but if he gives no warning, no life will be lost, though the mendicant's integrity may be doubted.

126:1 Or any fixed period, which the mendicant has vowed not to exceed staying in one place.

127:1 Sântigriha.

127:2 See note 5 on p. 81.

128:1 There are five sorts of Sramanas enumerated in the following hemistich, which occurs not only in Sîlâ?ka's commentary, but also in that of the Sthânâ?ga Sûtra, as Dr. Leumann informs me: Niggamtha, Sakka, Tâvasa, Gerua, Âgîva pamkahâ samanâ. Nirgranthas, Sâkyas, Tâpasas, Gairikas, Âgîvakas.

128:2 Dupakkham te kamma sevamti, lit. use twofold work; the meaning is, according to the commentary, that they act like householders, though they make a show of monastic life.

The Sacred Books of the East -translated by various Oriental scholars and edited by F. Max Müller Vol. xxii
Gaina Sutras Translated from Prakrit by Hermann Jacobi in two parts -Part I -The Âkârâ?ga Sûtra
SECOND BOOK - FIRST PART, LECTURE II, LESSON 2
God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - Jainism
Jaina Sutras, Part I (SBE22), translated by Hermann Georg Jacob Jacobi - 1884

This text is in the public domain within the United States, because it was published prior to 1923