DIGAMBARA: A monk who has renounced the world, is without a home and without possessions and therefore moves around completely naked. (see)
The Daily Routine Of a Digambara Monk:
The only objects a Digambara monk is allowed to carry are a kamandalu, water-pot, and a pinchi, a fly-whisk of peacock feathers. Normally a monk gets up before sunrise to carry out his daily routine. In an open field he finds a clean patch of ground devoid of insects, to perform his daily necessities. After washing his hands and feet (a monk is not allowed to take a bath) he comes back to his monastic chamber where he undertakes his daily samayika or study of texts and sits in meditation to identify his faults such as negligence in behavior towards living creatures. After this he goes to a nearby temple to perform chaityavandana or worship of the jina. On return he goes out for food to any of the shravakas (people of the Jain family) house for food. A monk keeps the thumb and the four fingers of his right hand joined together while resting on his shoulder. This is called ahara mudra. If he loses this posture on his way to the host-house-holder he is not supposed to eat on that day. This way the monk does not rest assured about the pleasure of obtaining food. A Digambara monk eats in standing posture from the hollow of his hands. The standing posture is prescribed because if a monk cannot stand anymore due to old age or illness the body is to be discarded by fasting till death (called as Salekhana). For eating or drinking he does not use any pots or pans. He eats the prescribed vegetarian food irrespective of preference. After having eaten, the monk goes back to the temple to practice samayika for at least 48 minutes in order to train his mind so that neither pain nor joy may affect him. If he then does not continue his journey on the same day he stays on and his admirers, the lay-community, gather around him to listen to his preaching. Afterwards the monks read together some scriptures or enter into religious discourses.
TOTAPURI, a Digambara monk reputed to
have lived to be 300 years old. Totapuri was
the guru that initiated Sri Ramakrishna's**
Enlightenment.
Totapuri as an orthodox wandering monk never remained more than three days in one location. However, he became so awed by Ramakrishna's ability in Samadhi to remain 'rigid as a corpse for days on end', that he broke his longstanding rule, resulting in him staying eleven months at Dakshineswar hoping to learn from the man who had previously been his disciple. During this long stay he contracted serious dysentery. There was prolonged and severe pain, which was distracting Totapuri during meditation. Since he considered the body just a medium, essentially unnecessary after the realization of the Absolute, he decided to give up his body by drowning in the Ganges. He walked out into the river, but, even though the river should have been extremely deep, at least in the middle, no matter how far he went the water never got above his knees. He ended up without ever reaching deep water. Eventually he came upon the bank on the far side and when he turned to look back, he
saw the Kali temple gleaming in moonlight and experienced a sudden deep Awakening. He recognized sheer divine power and consciousness, moving through all beings and controlling all events, including his own attempt to discard the body. Totapuri thus accepted the manifest universe and its energy as a radiant expression of the Absolute. The demarcation between form and formless no longer existed for him.
Totapuri's experience being not unlike or similar to, a more modern day moonlight driven event foretold by the Wanderling's Zen Mentor and described in Dark Luminosity:
"...the moon's pale-soft beams fell into my eyes unaware of my existance nor me of it, the light thereof poured on it's own down through my pupils and lightning like, a fist size feeling of something akin to bliss began to build and radiate..."
