The Heart of Jainism/Chapter 11
The layman has now reached the summit of his ambition, and is prepared to take those five celebrated vows which Mahāvīrahimself laid down as the only entrance through which a man can pass to the ascetic state.
As one reads the biographies of the great Jaina saints, or even studies the lengthy route we have just been following, one can see that, though the Jaina did not insist on their candidates taking a long training like that of the Vedic schools, they nevertheless did not intend their monks to be the ignorant, ill-prepared and undisciplined men they often are at present. The Jaina openly wish that they could insist on a thorough preparation for their sadhus such as is customary for the Christian ministry.
Initia-
tion.The life story of an ascetic may be said to begin with his initiation or Dīkṣā, and the writer is indebted to a Śvetāmbara monk for the following account of a Jaina call and ordination.
The man in question had heard a famous sādhu preach on the transitoriness of life and happiness and the superiority of the religious over the lay life, and had thereupon followed the preacher for a year as his disciple, and at the completion of twelve months received initiation.
A great procession was formed and he was led through the town to a banyan tree (an aśoka tree would also have served). There a pujārī (officiating priest) had arranged a small three-tiered platform with an image of one of the Tīrthaṅkara at the top. A Jaina layman began the proceedings by performing the ordinary daily worship, and then the candidate took off his jewels and his clothes, and giving them away to his relatives, put on a sādhu's dress.
An ascetic can only retain five garments (three upper and two lower ones), the colours of which vary according to his sect, a Śvetāmbara wearing yellow, or white with yellow over it, and a Sthānakavāsī white. A Digambara ascetic, however, may wear no clothing at all, and such are accordingly to be found only in jungles or desert places outside British states. In Bhopāl my informant met a man claiming to be a Digambara sādhu, but because he wore a loin-cloth, the laymen of his community refused to recognize him as such, and drove him away.
The next step in the initiation is the removal of the hair. A peculiarity of the Jaina cult is that they insist on ascetics tearing the hair out by the roots at least once a year; but when at his initiation a man's hair is removed for the first time, the merciful method of shaving is resorted to, and only a few hairs are left to be pulled out; these are plucked off behind a curtain in private. After this a mixture called Vāsakṣepa is applied to the man's head, and this is the crucial point in the initiation, for until this is applied he is not a sādhu. Whilst the mixture is being put on, a sādhu whispers a sacred mantra in his ear. The newly made sādhu then performs the morning worship, and devout laymen feast the ascetics who are present.
If the ascetic were a Digambara, he would take an entirely new name; if a Śvetāmbara, he might either change his name or add a new one to his old one; but a Sthānakavāsī retains his original name intact.
He is now to be a homeless wanderer, possessing nothing and dependent for his very subsistence on the alms of the charitable. He may possess no metal of any sort: even a needle, if borrowed, must be returned at sunset, and his spectacles, if he wear them, should be framed in wood. A man was once pointed out to the writer at Pālitāṇā as a sādhu who, however, was wearing gold-rimmed spectacles; and when she asked for an explanation, the bystanders all turned and jeered at the discomfited ascetic, declaring, much to his chagrin, that since he had infringed this law, he had no claim to be accounted a monk at all. Constant evasions of the rules against non-possession, however, do take place, to the great indignation of the laity, some monks, as we have seen, even retaining their property on their persons in the shape of bank-notes, thus keeping the letter and breaking the spirit of the law.
The ascetic may have some pieces of cloth to strain away any insects from the water he will drink, and also some wooden jugs or some gourds in which to keep his drinkingwater, but no brass vessels. All monks also possess a piece of cloth to wear over their mouths, not, as has been usually thought, to prevent them injuring the minute insects in the air, but to guard against hurting the air itself.[1] The less strict Śvetāmbara only keep this mouth-cloth in their hands, but the Sthānakavāsī always wear it night and day; and the writer found that it always pleased ascetics if she covered her lips with a handkerchief when speaking with them or when in the presence of any of their sacred objects.
Every Svetambara monk also carries with him five shells; these must be spiral and must turn to the right; shells turning to the left are useless. The shells are consecrated at the time of the Divālī festival.
All ascetics have to guard most scrupulously against the taking of any insect life, so all three sects furnish their monks with something with which they may sweep insects from their path. Amongst the Sthānakavāsī, who are the most punctilious of all the Jaina, the monks have a long-handled brush; the Śvetāmbara ascetics use a smaller brush; and the Digambara a peacock's feather.
We shall later study the five great vows that guide an ascetic, and we have already learnt something of his philosophy and his belief in austerity, but it may be of interest here to record the actual daily life of a Śvetāmbara ascetic, as one of their number described it to the writer.
Daily
duties. They are supposed to rise about four o'clock, summer and winter, and perform Rāyasī Paḍīkamaṇuṁ, in which in a set form of Māgadhī words each monk confesses the sins of the past night, and especially the taking of any life and any injury he may have inflicted on any sacred thing, or any of the earth, water, fire, air, or vegetable bodies. It is at this time that the laity perform their meditation or sāmāyika, but in many of the Śvetāmbara sects a sādhu performs sāmāyika at the time of his initiation and never again.
After paḍīkamaṇuṁ he engages in a search for any insect life that may be sheltering in his clothing. This search, which is called Palevaṇa, is carried out as a religious duty, and any insect found is carefully removed to a place of safety.
The sādhu neither bathes nor cleanses his teeth; he does these things before his initiation for the last time in his life, but now, without waiting for either, he leaves the monastery and goes to the temple to perform Darśana. Unlike a layman, he dons no special clothes at the temple gates, but worships in his ordinary ones. When he enters the temple, he stands in front of the idol and bows down to it, and then performs a mental exercise known as Bhāva pūjā, during which he meditates on the undoing of karma, the qualities of a Tīrthaṅkara, and similar subjects. He now performs Pradakṣiṇā, circumambulating the shrine either four or seven times. If he do it four times, he meditates on the four gati, namely, whether he will be born as a god, a man, an animal, or a denizen of hell; if he walks round seven times, he thinks how he can best escape dwelling in any of the seven hells.
An ascetic can neither cleanse the idol (jaḷa pūjā), nor mark it with saffron (ċandana pūjā), nor offer flowers (puṣpa pūjā), nor wave incense before it (dhūpa pūjā), nor wave a lamp (dīpa pūjā), nor offer rice (akṣata pūjā), nor sweetmeats (naivedya pūjā), nor fruit (phaḷa pūjā) neither can he mark his own forehead, as a layman would, with a ċāndalo (auspicious mark); but his worship seems to be almost entirely mental and 'interior', and sometimes includes acts of worship known as Khamāsamaṇa, Ċaityavandana and Jāvantiċayaṇaṁ. He also usually sings some hymn in praise of the qualities of the Arihanta, and then joining his hands repeats a mantra. After meditating in a particular posture (Kāusagga), he tells his beads, making salutations to 'the Five' (Arihanta, Siddha, Āċārya, Upādhyāya and Sādhu), and to Knowledge, Faith, Character and Austerity. When he has done this and said the Āvasahī, which allows him to enter his worldly affairs again, he feels that Bhāva pūjā is complete; with its different parts and their variations it generally lasts about an hour.
After completing his Bhāva pūjā the ascetic goes back to the monastery and either preaches or reads one of the scriptures.
Begging. About ten o'clock in the morning one of the monks goes Begging out on a begging round; as a rule one begs for the whole monastery, whilst the other monks study. Curiously enough the English fashion of tea-drinking has spread so much in India that even monks now indulge in an early cup of tea; and the writer's informant told her that he used not to wait till ten o'clock, but about an hour after sunrise he always went on a preliminary round, and, begging tea and milk for his guru and the other monks, took it back to the monastery. According to their scriptures, ascetics are only supposed to beg once a day, but as a matter of fact they often do so three or four times a day. When the monk goes out at ten, he expects to receive gifts of rice and split peas, bread, vegetables, curry, sweets, and dudhapāka (a kind of milk pudding).
There are innumerable rules that should be observed when begging, with regard to which all the sects and subsects differ. A yellow-robed Śvetāmbara sādhu will only accept food from Jaina, and would refuse alms from Brāhmans, Kṣatriya, and even from Vaiṣṇava and Mesarī Baniyā; on the other hand, the white-clad Śvetāmbara sadhu will take food from Brāhmans and Kṣatriya, and in Mārwār they will even accept it from a Hajāma (barber), with whom a high-caste Hindu will not eat.
My informant told me that he was most careful to go only to houses in which the door was standing open, and that he always repeated the formula: Dharma Lābha. He was not nearly as particular as the Sthānakavāsī about the boiled water he took: for whereas they would only accept water which has been boiled not more than four hours previously, lest new life should have been formed in it, this Śvetāmbara sādhu told the writer that he generally begged enough boiled water in the morning to last the whole day, and that it was only in the rainy season he was particular to keep the water for a shorter time. They are very particular, however, not to take vegetable life; and if on the steps of a house they see a green leaf or a vegetable lying they refuse to pass over it, turn aside and go to another house. In the same way, if they see the woman of the house cleaning rice or wheat, they will not take it, but will only accept rice or grain cleaned before they came on the scene. If a mother is nursing her baby and offers to leave it to go and get food for them, they refuse, lest they should be guilty of making the child cry.
All sects agree in only taking what they may reasonably consider to be food left over after the needs of the household have been satisfied; none will take things specially prepared for them. They never sit in a layman's house, but take the gift back to the monastery, and after showing it to the Head, divide it with the other monks. They will not receive food if it is taken specially to the monastery for them; but a Śvetāmbara will accept an invitation to go and fetch food from a layman's house, a thing which a Sthānakavāsī will never do.
With regard to clothes, the rule is the same: the monk may not ask for clothes, may not accept them if taken to the monastery specially for him, and may only receive them if the householder, as he gives them, explains that he has no longer any need of them.
These rules were clearly drawn up to prevent the order becoming too great a tax on the charitable; but, despite all this care, the numberless 'holy men' in India are a most unfair burden on the earnings of the industrious.
Confes-
sion. The begging round is finished about eleven, but before Confesbreakfasting the ascetic makes auricular confession (Āloyaṇā) to his guru and has a penance appointed.
The monks breakfast as near eleven as possible, for they may not warm up the food, and so eat it as quickly as they can.
Kāḷa. From twelve to one they may not study; this hour is called Kāḷa, and to study during it would be a sin.
Study. From one to three they ought to study, and the laity are so anxious that they shall, that devout Jaina often pay a pandit to instruct the monks in Sanskrit or Māgadhī, but they complain most bitterly of the monks' aversion to intellectual labour.
In the early afternoon, from about three to four, they again perform palevaṇa, searching their clothing for insects.
About half-past four they go out to beg, and after coming in, make confession just as they did in the morning. They dine from five to six on their gleanings from the charitable, generally, as at breakfast, on rice and peas, bread, vegetables, curry and sweets; this meal they must finish before sunset, and during the night they may not even drink water.
They may not leave the monastery after dark, but they perform their evening Paḍīkamaṇuṁ there for about an hour. As no light can be brought into the monastery, their day closes about nine o'clock, when they perform Santhārā Porasī, spending about an hour asking the protection of Arihanta, Siddha, Kevalī, and Sādhu.
Female ascetics (sādhvī) are held in the greatest reverence by the Jaina, and their lives follow much the same lines as those of the male ascetics. They always wander about in twos or threes and have of course their own Apāsarā. At their initiation their hair is shaved and pulled out just like a monk's, and the mantra is whispered to them by a sādhvī instead of a sādhu.
They choose the head of their Apāsaro generally for learning; if she be strong enough, she wanders homeless just like the other nuns, but if old and feeble, she is allowed to continue to live in the same nunnery without change.
A nun's day much resembles that of a monk. The stricter ones will only beg once, eat once, and sleep for a few hours in the twenty-four; but these more rigid rules are falling into abeyance, and the nuns the writer has met confess that they do not now rise as they should after a few hours sleep to meditate twice in the night.
The funeral of a nun[2] is carried out with the greatest pomp, and during it childless women strive to tear a piece from the dead sādhvī's dress, believing it will ensure their having children, whilst men anxiously endeavour to acquire merit by carrying the palanquin in which the corpse, covered with a rich cloth, is borne, boys from the Jaina school acting as a guard of honour.
In all the neighbouring towns also, directly the telegram announcing the nun's death is received, a crier would be sent out to tell the news and to ask the Jaina to observe Amāra, i. e. not to grind or pound grain or do anything that might involve the destruction of life. All the Jaina who know the Logassa, or praise of the twenty-four Tīrthaṅkara, would repeat it four times, sitting in the Kāusagga position, either in their own houses or in the Apāsarā, and all the Jaina schools would be closed.
A pathetic case recently occurred in Kāṭhiāwāḍ, when a wealthy old Jaina lady and her husband became ascetics. Their initiation was celebrated with great pomp; but of course the lady suffered most severely by being suddenly deprived of all luxury and comfort; and even when she was ill with fever, it was not possible for her husband to see her, as the two might never meet.
Amongst the sadhus we have not included the Gorajī or Yati, because the orthodox Jaina do not hold them to be sādhus at all. They are considered to be a fallen class of monks, for they take money, go about in palanquins, and keep watchmen and guards. They exact a tax from their followers of five rupees and upwards, which they annually go out to collect, returning again to their own monastery. Their spiritual heads are called Śrīpūjya, and are to be found in Bombay, Baroda, Māndvī, Māngrol, Jaisalmer, and many other towns. The Gorajī, in fact, much resemble the Śaṅkarāċārya or Vaiṣṇava Āċārya; and orthodox Jaina say they prove the wisdom of Mahāvīra's insistence on constant change of abode, for they have not a high reputation for morality, and strict Jaina will not give them any money or go to their Apāsarā, though ignorant Jaina sometimes contribute through fear of their power to harm, since the Gorajī claim to know many mantra.
We may now examine the famous five vows taken by all ascetics. They resemble the first five of the layman's twelve vows, and this accordance bears witness to the fact that these are the five points in the Jaina religion which are to be regarded as of supreme importance.
i. Ahiṁ-
sā. The first vow the Jaina monk takes is that he will never destroy any living thing. This is also the first vow that both Buddhist and Brāhman monks take, and it was the resemblance between the vows that led people for so long to deny the early origin of Jainism.[3]
The Jaina ascetic takes a vow of Non-killing (Ahiṁsā), which is described as follows:
'Not to destroy life, either five-, four-, three-, or two-sensed, or immovable (i.e. one-sensed), even through carelessness, is considered as keeping the vow of non-killing.'[4]
There are five buttressing clauses (Pañċa Bhāvanā), the remembrance of which assists a sādhu to keep this vow. First (Īryā samiti or samai), a monk must be careful never to run the risk of breaking the vow in walking: for instance he must walk by trodden paths, in which the presence of any insect could be detected. He must also (Bhāṣā samiti or Vatiṁ parijāṇāi), be watchful in his speech and always speak in gentle, kindly ways, such as could never give rise to quarrels or murders. If he were not careful as to the alms he received (Eṣaṇā samiti or Āloi pāṇa bhoyaṇa), he might infringe some of the forty-two rules as to receiving alms, e.g. by accepting food containing living insects. When a monk receives or keeps anything that is necessary for religious duties, he must see (Ādānanikṣepaṇā samiti or Āyāṇabhaṇḍa nikhevaṇā), that it has no insect life on it. And at night, when putting away all that remains over from the food he has begged, he must deposit it and any other refuse so carefully, that no insect life is injured (Pratisthāpana samiti or Parithāpaṇikā samai).[5]
The following śloka sums up these five clauses:
'A man should respect the vow of Ahiṁsā by exercising self-control, examining things taken, always maintaining the Five Samiti, and by inspecting things before he eats or drinks, and before he receives them.'
ii. Asat-
ya tyāga. The Jaina monk further takes a vow against untruthfulness (Asatya tyāga) which is defined in the following words:
'Undertaking to speak what is pleasant, wholesome and true is called the vow of truthfulness. Truth is untruth if it is not pleasant and wholesome.'
The five bhāvanā, or strengthening clauses, to this vow supply a remarkable psychological analysis of the causes which lead to untruthfulness. The first (Aṇubīmabhāsī) condemns speech without deliberation; then, as wrath often leads to falsehood, monks must never speak when angry (Kohaṁ parijāṇāi); nor for a similar reason when moved by avarice (Lohaṁ parijāṇāi); nor by fear (Bhayaṁ parijāṇāi); finally, they promise never to tell a falsehood for fun, or from the desire to return a smart repartee (Hāsaṁ parijāṇāi) .
A Sanskrit śloka which sums up these clauses may be translated as follows:
'One should respect the vow of truthfulness by always avoiding jesting, greed, cowardice and anger, and by thinking before speaking.'
iii. Asteya
vrata. The third vow, that of non-stealing (Asteya vrata), is iii.Asteya defined as follows:
'The vow of non-stealing consists in not taking what is not given; wealth is the outward life of man, and if that is taken away the man is undone.'
The following śloka describes these clauses:
'One should ask for a place of residence after reflection, and renew the request every day: "I only need so much of it." Thus speaking, one should renew his petition. With people of one's own rank one should ask in the same way. One should gain permission before eating or drinking. In these ways the vow of non-stealing is respected.'
iv. Brahmaċarya vrata.
The monks, as their fourth promise, take the vow of chastity )Brahmaċarya), and the Sthānakavāsī monks in Kāṭhiāwāḍ every night and morning repeat the following words:
'The vow of chastity is eighteen-fold. One should have no dealings with gods, human beings or animals of the opposite sex, should not encourage them, or cause others to do so, by speech, thought or deed.'
This vow also has its five strengthening or protective clauses. To prevent any approach to transgressions of the main vow, monks should not talk about a woman (Abhikhaṇaṁ itthīṇaṁ kahaṁ kaha itame); or look at the form of a woman (Maṇoharāi indiyāi āloetae); or even recall the former amusement and pleasure women afforded them when they lived in the world (Itthīṇaṁ puvārayāiṁ puvakiliyāi sumaritae); they must not, for similar reasons, eat or drink[6] to excess, or partake of too highly spiced dishes (Ṇātimapāṇa bhoyaṇa bhoi); nor must they live in the same building as a woman, a female animal, or a eunuch (Itthī pasu paṇḍaga saṁsatāi sayaṇā saṇāiṁ sevitāe).
All these rules mutatis mutandis apply to nuns.
The śloka that sums up the whole vow and its clauses runs thus:
'The vow of chastity is maintained by not sitting on seats previously occupied by women, female animals or eunuchs, and by not living in their vicinity, not participating in exciting conversation about women, not remembering former delights, not looking at a woman's form, not decorating one's own person, not eating or drinking to excess, or partaking of too highly seasoned food.'
This Jaina vow seems limited to negative chastity, which shudderingly avoids its fellow creatures, lest they should prove occasions of stumbling, and it appears ignorant of the sunlit purity that so delights in its walk with God on the open road of life, that it cannot be bored with nastiness.
v. Apari-
graha
vrata. The last great vow (Aparigraha vrata) consists in renouncing all love for anything or any person. The definition of it may be translated as follows:
'Having no possessions consists in relinquishing greed for anything; if we think that a particular thing is our own, the mind is agitated by greed.'
In the Jaina scriptures the vow is held to exclude all likes and dislikes in regard to sounds, colours, or smells, as well as people. In short, the way to maintain this vow is to be indifferent to anything our senses can tell us.
This fifth vow of the monk foreshadows what the condition of the Siddha will be, when all his powers are entirely shrivelled up.
The following śloka tells how the vow is kept:
'Renouncing liking for pleasant touch, taste, smell, form,[7] or word,[8] and for all the objects of the five senses, renouncing hatred for unpleasant objects, these are the ways to maintain the vow of Aparigraha.'
Rātribho-
jana
tyāga.
Certain Śvetāmbara add a sixth vow, that of never dining after it is dark (Rātribhojana tyāga), lest they should inadvertently take life, but most Jaina consider this included under the other vows that protect insect life.
We have seen that the Jaina have a conception of the ideal layman; and in the same way they also show us the picture of a perfect monk, summed up in a Māgadhī śloka:
'The true ascetic should possess twenty-seven qualities, for he must keep the five vows, never eat at night, protect all living things,[9] control his five senses, renounce greed, practise forgiveness, possess high ideals, and inspect everything he uses to make sure that no insect life is injured. He must also be self-denying and carefully keep the three gupti, he must endure hardships in the twenty-two ways, and bear suffering till death.'
- ↑ See p. 100.
- ↑ A full description of a nun's funeral is given in the writer's Notes on Modern Jainism, Blackwell, 1910, pp. 28 ff.
- ↑ The whole question has been authoritatively discussed by Dr. Jacobi, S. B. E., xxii, pp. xix ff.
- ↑ The words resemble those of the layman's vows with the addition of 'Ekendriya'.
- ↑ Some Jaina substitute for this the duty of searching mind, thought and intention (Manaparijāṇāi).
- ↑ It will be remembered that no Jaina, lay or ascetic, may ever drink wine.
- ↑ i. e. beauty.
- ↑ i. e. literature and oratory.
- ↑ Of the six classes.