Book II, Lecture 1, Lesson 7

Jaina Sutras, Part II (SBE22), tr. by Hermann Jacobi, [1884], at sacred-texts.com

SEVENTH LESSON.

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept food, &c., which has been placed on a post or pillar or beam or scaffold or loft ¹ or platform or roof or some such-like elevated place; for such food fetched from above is impure and unacceptable. The Kevalin says: This is the reason: The layman might fetch and erect a stool or a bench or a ladder or a handmill, get upon it, and getting upon it fall or tumble down. Thus he might hurt his foot or arm or breast or belly or head or some other part of his body; or he might kill or frighten or bruise or smash or crush or afflict or pain or dislocate all sorts

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of living beings. Therefore he should not accept such-like food, &c., fetched from above. (1)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept food, &c., which a layman, for the sake of the mendicant, has taken from a granary or vault by contorting himself up and down and horizontally; thinking that such-like food is brought from underground ¹. (2)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept food, &c., which is kept in earthenware. The Kevalin says: This is the reason: The layman might, for the sake of the mendicant, break the earthen vessel containing the food, &c., and thereby injure the earth-body; in the same way he might injure the fire-body, the wind-body, plants and animals; by putting it again (in earthenware), he commits the pakkhâkamma sin. Hence it has been said to the mendicant, &c., that he should not accept food, &c., which is put in earthenware. (3)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept food, &c., placed on the earth-body, the wind-body, the fire-body, for such food is impure and unacceptable. The Kevalin says: This is the reason: A layman might, for the sake of the mendicant, stir or brighten the fire, and taking the food, &c., down from it, might give it to the mendicant. Hence it has been said, &c., that he should accept no such food. (4)

When a monk or a nun on a begging-tour sees that a layman might, for the sake of the mendicant,

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cool too hot food, &c., by blowing or fanning with a winnowing basket or fan or a palm leaf or a branch or a part of a branch or a bird's tail or a peacock's tail or a cloth or a corner of a cloth or the hand or the mouth, they should, after consideration, say (to the householder or his wife): 'O long-lived one! (or, O sister!) do not blow or fan the hot food, &c., with a winnowing basket, &c.; but if you want to give it me, give it as it is.' After these words the other might give it after having blown or fanned it with a winnowing basket, &c.; such-like food they should not accept, because it is impure and unacceptable. (5)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept food, &c., which is placed on vegetable or animal matter ¹; for such food is impure and unacceptable. (6)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept water which has been used for watering flour or sesamum or rice, or any other such-like water which has been recently used for washing, which has not acquired a new taste, nor altered its taste or nature, nor has been strained; for such-like water is impure and unacceptable. But if it has long ago been used for washing, has acquired a new taste, has altered its taste or nature, and has been strained, it may be accepted, for it is pure and acceptable. (7)

When a monk or a nun on a begging-tour finds water used for washing sesamum, chaff or barley, or rainwater ² or sour gruel or pure water, they should, after consideration, say (to the householder or his wife): 'O long-lived one! (or, O sister!) will you give

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me some of this water?' Then the other may answer him: 'O long-lived Sramana! take it yourself by drawing it with, or pouring it in, your bowl!' Such-like water, whether taken by himself or given by the other, he may accept. (8)

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept such water as has been taken from the bare ground, &c. (see II, 1, 5, § 2, all down to) cobwebs, or water which the layman fetches in a wet or moist or dirty vessel, mixing it with cold water.

This certainly is the whole duty, &c.

Thus I say. (9)

Footnotes

105:1 Mâla. The word is not explained in the Tîkâ and Dîpikâ; the Guzerati translation says that the word is lokapratîta, commonly understood. It is probably the Marâthî mâl or mâlâ; the former word denotes a loft, floored with bamboos; the second, the room formed by overlaying with slight sticks the cross-beams of a house, a loft, an erection or stand in a cornfield, scaffolding (of a building). Molesworth, Marâthî and English Dictionary, s. v.

106:1 The original has bho mâlohadam ti nakkâ. Bho mâlohada is explained adhomâlâhritam. Mâlohada, which I translate 'fetched from above,' is the technical term for things affected by the dosha under question.

107:1 Vanassaikâyapatitthiya and tasakâyapatitthiya.

107:2 Âyâma, âkâmlam avasyânam.