(Śayyā p.) as sleeping in the open air or under a tree, without even a plank for a bed; and in the same way, if no one lends him a bed in a town, he must sleep contentedly without it, knowing that he is thus arresting karma. Karma is also checked by calmly enduring taunts and reproaches (Ākrośa p.) and not taking cruel or rankling words to heart.
The Jaina say that, before the ‘Pax Britannica’ ruled in India, there was constant quarrelling between members of the various religions, and the followers of Śaṅkarāċārya in particular persecuted them; this often led to fights, but the Jaina sādhus were urged to receive even beatings philosophically, being assured that such endurance (Vadha p.) would hinder the accumulation of karma; and to help them they were told to reflect, when struck, that after all it might have been worse, for they had not lost their lives. It sometimes happens that a rich man’s son or even a prince becomes a Jaina sādhu; and it is specially unpleasant for a man of such social position to go round begging, for ‘the hand (of the giver) is not always kindly stretched out to a monk when he is on his begging tour’,[1] but by enduring this (Yāñċā p.) he retards karma. Sometimes too a monk is met with a blank refusal, or for fear of committing any of the forty-two faults has himself to refuse food offered to him; he must bear this (Alābha p.) calmly, thinking that though he get nothing to-day, he may perhaps get something to-morrow.
Illness (Roga p.) affords a monk a chance of checking the growth of karma, if he endure it patiently as punishment for past sin (we have already seen that Jaina look on all illness as punishment for sin in a previous existence) and neither desires medical attendance, nor cries out that he is dying or dead, but continues to think of the welfare of his soul, neither acting himself nor causing others to act. The jungle grass in India is so full of thorns and prickles that the Jaina scriptures truly say that if a naked ascetic lies on the grass he will certainly be badly scratched; in the
- ↑ Uttarādhyayana, S. B. E., xlv, p. 13.
