According to the C[=a]stra already cited the laic must rise early in the morning, worship the god’s idol at home, go to the temple and circumambulate the Jina idol three times, strewing flowers, and singing hymnsand then read the Praty[=a]khy[=a]na (an old P[=u]rva, gospel).[23] Further rules of prayer and practice guide him through his day.  And by following this rule he expects to obtain spiritual ‘freedom’ hereafter; but for his life on earth he is “without praise or blame for this world or the next, for life or for death, having meditation as his one pure wife” (iii. 150).  He will become a god in heaven, be reborn again on earth, and so, after eight successive existences (the Buddhistic number), at last obtain salvation, release (from bodies) for his eternal soul (153).

As in the Upanishads, the gods, like men, are a part of the system of the universe.  The wise man goes to them (becomes a god) only to return to earth again.  All systems thus unite hell and heaven with the karma doctrine.  But in this Jain work, as in so many of the orthodox writings, the weight is laid more on hell as a punishment than on rebirth.  Probably the first Jains did not acknowledge gods at all, for it is an early rule with them not to say ‘God rains,’ or use any such expression, but to say ‘the cloud rains’; and in other ways they avoid to employ a terminology which admits even implicitly the existence of divinities.  Yet do they use a god not infrequently as an agent of glorification of Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, saying in later writings that Indra transformed himself, to do the Teacher honor; and often they speak of the gods and goddesses as if these were regarded as spirits.  Demons and inferior beings are also utilized in the same way, as when it is said that at the Teacher’s birth the demons (spirits) showered gold upon the town.

The religious orders of the Cvet[=a]mbara sect contained nuns as well as monks, although, as we have said, women are not esteemed very favorably:  “The world is greatly troubled by women.  People say that women are vessels of pleasure.  But this leads them to pain, to delusion, to death, to hell, to birth as hell-beings or brute-beasts.”  Such is the decision in the [=A]e[=a]r[=a]nga S[=u]tra, or book of usages for the Jain monk and nun.  From the same work we extract a few rules to illustrate the practices of the Jains.  This literature is the most tedious in the world, and to give the gist of the heretic law-maker’s manual will suffice.

Asceticism should be practiced by monk and nun, if possible.  But if one finds that he cannot resist his passions, or is disabled and cannot endure austerities, he may commit suicide; although this release is sometimes reprehended, and is not allowable till one has striven against yielding to such a means.  But when the twelve years of asceticism are passed one has assurance of reaching Nirv[=a]na, and so may kill himself.  Of Nirv[=a]na there is no description.  It is release, salvation, but it is of such sort that in regard to it ‘speculation has no place,’ and ‘the mind cannot conceive of it’ (copied from the Upanishads).  In other regards, in contrast to the nihilistic Buddhist, the Jain assumes a doubtful attitude, so that he is termed the ‘may-be philosopher,’ sy[=a]dv[=a]din,[24] in opposition to the Buddhist, the philosopher of ‘the void.’