Chapter 7 · 34 sūtras
The Vows
Vrata Adhyāya
Chapter 7 is the ethics chapter. It defines a vow as abstention from injury, falsehood, theft, unchastity and possessiveness, and distinguishes the ascetic's total vows from the householder's partial ones. Each vow is protected by five bhāvanās, and the whole scheme is supported by four attitudes — friendliness, appreciation, compassion and equanimity — and by reflection on the nature of the world and the body. The chapter gives precise definitions of hiṃsā, falsehood, theft and possessiveness, describes the supplementary vows of the householder, and lists the five transgressions of each vow — the finest ethical checklist in the tradition. In the Śvetāmbara Bhāṣya recension the chapter runs to 34 sūtras.
Learning objectives
- Define vrata and distinguish aṇuvrata from mahāvrata.
- Give the technical definition of hiṃsā and explain why pramatta-yoga is the key term.
- Name the five bhāvanās of ahiṃsā.
- Explain maitrī, pramoda, kāruṇya and mādhyasthya.
- Name the seven śīlas of a householder.
- Explain sallekhanā and why it is not suicide.
- Recall the five transgressions (aticāras) of each vow.
Key concepts
- Vrata
- Deliberate abstention from the five faults. Total abstention in every respect is a mahāvrata (ascetic); partial abstention is an aṇuvrata (householder). Both are genuine steps on the same path.
- Hiṃsā defined
- 'Pramatta-yogāt prāṇa-vyaparopaṇaṃ hiṃsā' — depriving of life-forces through careless activity. The word 'pramatta' is decisive: carelessness, not the outcome alone, constitutes the injury.
- Bhāvanās
- Each vow has five supporting contemplations — for ahiṃsā: care in movement, in speech, in eating, in handling things, and in mental vigilance. Vows without bhāvanās are brittle.
- Four attitudes
- Maitrī (friendliness towards all), pramoda (delight in the virtuous), kāruṇya (compassion for the suffering), mādhyasthya (equanimity towards the hostile). The Jain emotional curriculum.
- Householder's twelve vows
- Five aṇuvratas plus three guṇavratas (dig, deśa, anartha-daṇḍa) and four śikṣāvratas (sāmāyika, prauṣadhopavāsa, upabhoga-paribhoga-parimāṇa, atithi-saṃvibhāga), culminating optionally in sallekhanā.
- Aticāra
- A transgression is not a breach but a fraying — the vow survives but is weakened. Sūtras 18-32 list five aticāras for right faith, each vow, each śīla and sallekhanā: a practical audit sheet.
Diagrams
Each vow is stabilised by five contemplations (7.1-7.3).
Reference plates
Large master charts for this chapter. Tap to open full screen and zoom.
Master summary sheet — the whole system on one page
Six dravyas, seven tattvas, eight karmas, twenty-eight mohanīya prakṛtis, fourteen guṇasthānas, samyagdarśana and its eight aṅgas, four kaṣāyas × four intensities, nine no-kaṣāyas, the ratnatraya, five samitis, three guptis and the full journey from mithyātva to mokṣa.
Chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Sūtras
34 key sūtras of this chapter, with word-level notes and cross-links.
- 7.1
हिंसानृतस्तेयाब्रह्मपरिग्रहेभ्यो विरतिर्व्रतम्
hiṃsānṛtasteyābrahmaparigrahebhyo viratirvratam
Abstinence from injury, falsehood, theft, unchastity and possessiveness is a vow.
The five great restraints, in an order that runs from the grossest to the subtlest. Parigraha is placed last because attachment is the root from which the other four grow.
- 7.2
देशसर्वतोऽणुमहती
deśasarvato'ṇumahatī
Partial or complete, they are minor or great vows.
One ethical code with two intensities. A householder who keeps aṇuvratas sincerely is on the same road as the monk, not a lesser road.
- 7.3
तत्स्थैर्यार्थं भावनाः पञ्च पञ्च
tatsthairyārthaṃ bhāvanāḥ pañca pañca
For their stability there are five contemplations each.
Twenty-five bhāvanās in total. They convert a vow from a one-time resolution into a trained habit of attention.
- 7.4
हिंसादिष्विहामुत्रापायावद्यदर्शनम्
hiṃsādiṣvihāmutrāpāyāvadyadarśanam
One should contemplate that injury and the rest bring suffering and blame here and hereafter.
A motivational contemplation: the faults are not merely forbidden, they are demonstrably self-harming in this life and the next.
- 7.5
दुःखमेव वा
duḥkham eva vā
Or, one should see that they are simply suffering itself.
An alternative, blunter contemplation: injury and its kin are not just causes of future suffering but are themselves suffering in the moment they occur.
- 7.6
मैत्रीप्रमोदकारुण्यमाध्यस्थ्यानि सत्त्वगुणाधिकक्लिश्यमानाविनेयेषु
maitrīpramodakāruṇyamādhyasthyāni sattvaguṇādhikakliśyamānāvineyeṣu
Friendliness towards all beings, appreciation of the virtuous, compassion for the suffering, and equanimity towards the badly disposed.
Four attitudes matched to four kinds of people. Together they remove the emotional fuel — hostility, envy, indifference, irritation — on which the five faults run.
- 7.7
जगत्कायस्वभावौ वा संवेगवैराग्यार्थम्
jagatkāyasvabhāvau vā saṃvegavairāgyārtham
Or one should reflect on the nature of the world and of the body, for the sake of spiritual urgency and detachment.
Two objects of reflection produce two results: seeing the world's ceaseless turning produces saṃvega, and seeing the body's impurity produces vairāgya.
- 7.8
प्रमत्तयोगात्प्राणव्यपरोपणं हिंसा
pramattayogāt prāṇavyaparopaṇaṃ hiṃsā
Injury is the severing of life-forces through activity vitiated by carelessness.
The definition turns on pramāda. Death caused without carelessness — as by a careful monk walking a swept path — is not hiṃsā in the technical sense, while a careless intention already is.
- 7.9
असदभिधानमनृतम्
asadabhidhānam anṛtam
Falsehood is saying what is not.
The Bhāṣya widens this: speech that is true but harmful is also anṛta, because the vow protects beings, not merely facts.
- 7.10
अदत्तादानं स्तेयम्
adattādānaṃ steyam
Theft is taking what is not given.
Not 'taking what belongs to another' but 'taking what is not given' — a far stricter standard that covers even unclaimed and trivial objects.
- 7.11
मैथुनमब्रह्म
maithunam abrahma
Unchastity is sexual activity.
Named abrahma — the absence of brahman, of dwelling in the self — because sexual craving is the sharpest form of outward-turning.
- 7.12
मूर्च्छा परिग्रहः
mūrcchā parigrahaḥ
Possessiveness is infatuation.
The most psychologically acute sūtra in the chapter: what binds is not the object held but the mental clinging. A monk with a bowl may be free; a man with nothing may be a hoarder in mind.
- 7.13
निःशल्यो व्रती
niḥśalyo vratī
One who is free of thorns is a votary.
Three śalyas — deceit (māyā), craving for enjoyment (nidāna) and false belief (mithyādarśana) — must be absent. A vow kept with any of them lodged inside is not a vow.
- 7.14
अगार्यनगारश्च
agāry anagāraś ca
He is a householder or a homeless ascetic.
Two legitimate forms of the religious life. The scripture never treats the lay path as merely preparatory folk religion.
- 7.15
अणुव्रतोऽगारी
aṇuvrato'gārī
The householder keeps the minor vows.
The householder's abstention is bounded by circumstance — limited in place, time and degree — but is a real vow, formally undertaken.
- 7.16
दिग्देशानर्थदण्डविरतिसामायिकप्रौषधोपवासोपभोगपरिभोगपरिमाणातिथिसंविभागव्रतसम्पन्नश्च
digdeśānarthadaṇḍaviratisāmāyikaprauṣadhopavāsopabhogaparibhogaparimāṇātithisaṃvibhāgavratasampannaśca
He is also endowed with the vows of limiting direction, limiting locality, refraining from purposeless harm, periodic equanimity, fasting on holy days, limiting things of use and enjoyment, and sharing with guests.
The seven śīlas: three guṇavratas that shrink the field of activity and four śikṣāvratas that train the mind. With the five aṇuvratas these make the householder's twelve vows.
- 7.17
मारणान्तिकीं सल्लेखनां जोषिता
māraṇāntikīṃ sallekhanāṃ joṣitā
He also gladly adopts the final scouring at the time of death.
Sallekhanā is undertaken only when death is certain and imminent, without desire for death, with passions thinned along with the body. Its motive is equanimity, which is exactly what suicide lacks.
- 7.18
शङ्काकाङ्क्षाविचिकित्सान्यदृष्टिप्रशंसासंस्तवाः सम्यग्दृष्टेरतीचाराः
śaṅkākāṅkṣāvicikitsānyadṛṣṭipraśaṃsāsaṃstavāḥ samyagdṛṣṭeratīcārāḥ
Doubt, desire for worldly enjoyment, disgust, praise of the wrongly convinced and association with them are the transgressions of right faith.
Right faith has its own hygiene. The five faults are subtle: none is outright disbelief, yet each erodes conviction from within.
- 7.19
व्रतशीलेषु पञ्च पञ्च यथाक्रमम्
vrataśīleṣu pañca pañca yathākramam
There are five transgressions each for the vows and the śīlas, in order.
A structural sūtra announcing the checklist that follows: five aticāras for each of the twelve vows and for sallekhanā.
- 7.20
बन्धवधच्छविच्छेदातिभारारोपणान्नपाननिरोधाः
bandhavadhacchavicchedātibhārāropaṇānnapānanirodhāḥ
Tethering, beating, mutilating, overloading, and withholding food and drink (transgress non-injury).
Everyday cruelties, mostly towards animals and dependents. None of them kills, yet each is a wound in the vow of ahiṃsā.
- 7.21
मिथ्योपदेशरहोऽभ्याख्यानकूटलेखक्रियान्यासापहारसाकारमन्त्रभेदाः
mithyopadeśaraho'bhyākhyānakūṭalekhakriyānyāsāpahārasākāramantrabhedāḥ
False instruction, divulging what was done in confidence, forgery, misappropriating a deposit, and betraying a secret read from gestures (transgress truthfulness).
Five ways of deceiving without telling an outright lie — proof that the vow of satya governs the use of speech, not only its literal content.
- 7.22
स्तेनप्रयोगतदाहृतादानविरुद्धराज्यातिक्रमहीनाधिकमानोन्मानप्रतिरूपकव्यवहाराः
stenaprayogatadāhṛtādānaviruddharājyātikramahīnādhikamānonmānapratirūpakavyavahārāḥ
Prompting a thief, receiving stolen goods, violating the law of the land, false weights and measures, and dealing in counterfeit goods (transgress non-stealing).
Commercial ethics, stated plainly. The vow reaches the ledger, the scale and the supply chain, not merely the act of taking.
- 7.23
परविवाहकरणेत्वरिकापरिगृहीतापरिगृहीतागमनानङ्गक्रीडाकामतीव्राभिनिवेशाः
paravivāhakaraṇetvarikaparigṛhītāparigṛhītāgamanānaṅgakrīḍākāmatīvrābhiniveśāḥ
Arranging others' marriages, intercourse with an unchaste married or unmarried woman, unnatural sexual practice, and intense sexual craving (transgress chastity).
The last item is the key: even without any act, obsessive craving itself transgresses the vow, because the vow is finally about the mind.
- 7.24
क्षेत्रवास्तुहिरण्यसुवर्णधनधान्यदासीदासकुप्यप्रमाणातिक्रमाः
kṣetravāstuhiraṇyasuvarṇadhanadhānyadāsīdāsakupyapramāṇātikramāḥ
Exceeding the limits set on land and houses, silver and gold, cattle and grain, servants, and utensils (transgresses non-possession).
The householder's vow is not to own nothing but to fix a ceiling and hold to it. Quietly raising the ceiling is the transgression.
- 7.25
ऊर्ध्वाधस्तिर्यग्व्यतिक्रमक्षेत्रवृद्धिस्मृत्यन्तराधानानि
ūrdhvādhastiryagvyatikramakṣetravṛddhismṛtyantarādhānāni
Exceeding the limits upward, downward and horizontally, enlarging the boundaries, and forgetting them (transgress the vow of direction).
Digvrata fixes how far one will travel in each direction; every extra mile is a proportional extension of one's capacity to do harm.
- 7.26
आनयनप्रेष्यप्रयोगशब्दरूपानुपातपुद्गलक्षेपाः
ānayanapreṣyaprayogaśabdarūpānupātapudgalakṣepāḥ
Sending for something from beyond the limit, sending a servant there, signalling by sound or gesture, and throwing an object across (transgress the vow of locality).
Five ingenious workarounds. The vow is transgressed not by crossing the line oneself but by reaching across it.
- 7.27
कन्दर्पकौत्कुच्यमौखर्यासमीक्ष्याधिकरणोपभोगपरिभोगानर्थक्यानि
kandarpakautkucyamaukharyāsamīkṣyādhikaraṇopabhogaparibhogānarthakyāni
Vulgar jesting, buffoonery, garrulity, thoughtless accumulation of implements, and pointless indulgence (transgress the vow against purposeless harm).
Anartha-daṇḍa covers harm that serves no purpose at all — the easiest harm to give up and the most habitual.
- 7.28
योगदुष्प्रणिधानानादरस्मृत्यनुपस्थापनानि
yogaduṣpraṇidhānānādarasmṛtyanupasthāpanāni
Misdirection of body, speech and mind, lack of earnestness, and lapse of mindfulness (transgress sāmāyika).
Sāmāyika is a fixed period of equanimity; it is spoiled not by breaking it off but by sitting through it absent-mindedly.
- 7.29
अप्रत्यवेक्षिताप्रमार्जितोत्सर्गादानसंस्तरोपक्रमणानादरस्मृत्यनुपस्थापनानि
apratyavekṣitāpramārjitotsargādānasaṃstaropakramaṇānādarasmṛtyanupasthāpanāni
Excreting, handling things and spreading a bed on an uninspected, unswept place, lack of earnestness, and lapse of mindfulness (transgress the fast-day vow).
The prauṣadha day is a day of monastic conduct at home; carelessness about small living creatures is its characteristic failure.
- 7.30
सचित्तसम्बन्धसम्मिश्राभिषवदुष्पक्वाहाराः
sacittasambandhasammiśrābhiṣavaduṣpakvāhārāḥ
Food that is living, connected with the living, mixed with the living, stimulating, or ill-cooked (transgresses the vow limiting consumables).
Upabhoga-paribhoga-parimāṇa regulates diet and goods; the five faults concern both injury to minute life and the arousal of appetite.
- 7.31
सचित्तनिक्षेपपिधानपरव्यपदेशमात्सर्यकालातिक्रमाः
sacittanikṣepapidhānaparavyapadeśamātsaryakālātikramāḥ
Placing food on or covering it with living things, passing off one's duty to another, giving grudgingly, and letting the proper time pass (transgress the vow of sharing with guests).
Atithi-saṃvibhāga is spoiled by the manner of the giving. Delay and reluctance are counted as faults of the vow itself.
- 7.32
जीवितमरणाशंसामित्रानुरागसुखानुबन्धनिदानकरणानि
jīvitamaraṇāśaṃsāmitrānurāgasukhānubandhanidānakaraṇāni
Desiring to live, desiring to die, affection for friends, recollection of past pleasures, and craving future enjoyment (transgress sallekhanā).
The list settles the ethical question: any wish for death is itself a transgression, so the practice is by definition not suicide.
- 7.33
अनुग्रहार्थं स्वस्यातिसर्गो दानम्
anugrahārthaṃ svasyātisargo dānam
Charity is giving away one's own for the benefit of another.
Two conditions: the thing given must genuinely be one's own, and the motive must be benefit — not display, obligation or return.
- 7.34
विधिद्रव्यदातृपात्रविशेषात्तद्विशेषः
vidhidravyadātṛpātraviśeṣāt tadviśeṣaḥ
Its result varies according to the manner, the thing given, the giver and the recipient.
Four variables, and the giver's own state of mind is one of them. The same object given differently produces entirely different karmic fruit.