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to a Jain monastery to listen to a discourse, people do mischief
and play pranks in the background. There they have the law of
‘Keep quiet’ and yet there is mischief – when everyone is doing
samayik some people do mischief and make fun of others and
break their concentration.
People living in this time cycle of dushamkaal (current
time cycle characterized by a progressive decline in morality and
spirituality) are not suitable for such laws. Their minds become
even more spoilt the moment you control them. Elsewhere they
have to maintain written rules even for one rule. Then if
something out of the ordinary were to occur, they would have
to make rules to address that. They have to dig out their old
books of rules and regulations and refer to them.
Discretion in matters of law
A very elderly Jain Maharaj went to spend Chaturmasa
(a period of four months in a rainy season, July to October) in
a Jain monastery. He had hurt his leg and could barely walk.
When the Chaturmasa was over, he was told, “You now have
to do vihar (leave the ashram).” His leg had not healed so he
asked them if he could extend his stay. The head of the
monastery told him that under the rules of the ashram, he had
already spent the maximum time there hence his stay could not
be extended. The old Maharaj had no choice but to leave, so
he said, “Okay, I will go to the village of Chhani; it is four miles
away, I will go there. But I cannot walk four miles, so can you
arrange for a doli (a man held carrier made especially for
transporting debilitated people)?” The sanghpati (head of the
monastery) tells him, “I do not recall having made such
arrangements for anyone before.” He then consulted his past
records and rulebooks but could not find any incident where
such services had been provided for a Maharaj. He told the
Maharaj, “There is no rule for such a provision, what can I do?
How can I break the rules?” Now tell me does everyone have