Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c22.43

c22.43

**Two Bases of Monasticism: Chastity.** But before going into these details of monastic life we should have a clear idea of the two fundamental principles which mark out monastic life, apart from its details, from the ordinary layman’s life of the world. The structure of worldly life has its basis in marriage and property; that of the life monastic rests on their very opposites, viz. celibacy and poverty. One of earliest expressions of the ascetic ideal describes those following it thus: "They cease from seeking for children, and seeking for possessions, and seeking the worldly, and they itinerate as beggars. For what seeking for children is, that is also seeking for possessions; what seeking for possessions is, that is also seeking for the worldly; the one is seeking as much as the other" *Satap. Br.*, xiv, 7, 2, 26]. To become a monk meant the dissolution of the marriage tie. "As a man whose head is cut off cannot live any longer with his trunk alone, thus a Bhikkhu who practises sexual intercourse is no Samana" [*Mahāv.*, i, 78, 2]. The texts make a monk address his forsaken wife as his quondam partner and as sister [ib., i, 78, 1; Oldenberg's *Buddha*, p. 355 n.]. Monkhood meant, indeed, a dissolution of all blood-relationships. The Buddha, after his monkhood, is addressed by his son Rāhula not as father but as Samaṇa, while his wife is hardly even recognized [*Mahāv.*, i, 54, 1–2]. The relations of the monk do not, however, necessarily disown him. From their standpoint the relationship continues and is open to the monk for resumption whenever he wants it. As has been already stated, Buddhism is indifferent to such backslidings of monks. In the *Suttavibhaṅga* [*Pār.*, i, 8, 2], a monk's longing for worldly life thus expresses itself: "I have a wife for whom I must provide; I have a village on the income of which I desire to live; I have gold, on it I shall live," thereby showing that his old connections, personal and material, may be resumed. A monk was also allowed, even when he has entered upon *Vassa* or residence during the rainy season, to visit his sick relations such as his parents, brother, or sister, if they desired it [*Mahāv.*, iii, 7]. He was also allowed to give robes to his father and mother if he so desired [ib., viii, 22].