Lecture 1, Lesson 4

A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not resolve to go to a festival, preceded or followed by an entertainment, to partake of it, when they know that there will be served up chiefly meat or fish or roasted slices of meat or fish; nor to a wedding breakfast in the husband’s house or in that of the bride’s father; nor to a funeral dinner or to a family dinner where something is served up,--if on their way there, there are many living beings, many seeds, many sprouts, much dew, much water, much mildew, many drops (of water), much dust, and many cobwebs; or if there have arrived or will arrive many Śramaṇas and Brāhmaṇas, guests, paupers, and beggars, and if it will be a crowded assembly, so that a wise man may not enter or leave it, or learn there the sacred texts, to question about them, to repeat them, to consider them, to think about the substance of the law. (1)

A monk or a nun may go to such an entertainment (as described in the preceding Sara), provided that on their way there, there are few living beings, few seeds, &c.; that no Śramaṇas and Brāhmaṇas, &c., have arrived or will arrive; that it is not a crowded assembly, so that a wise man may enter or leave, &c.^[1] (2)

A monk or a nun desirous to enter the abode of a householder, should not do so, when they see that the milch cows are being milked, or the food, &c., is being cooked, and that it is not yet distributed. Perceiving this, they should step apart and stay where no people pass or see them. But when they conceive that the milch cows are milked, the dinner prepared and distributed, then they may circumspectly enter or leave the householder’s abode for the sake of alms. (3)

Some of the mendicants say to those who follow the same rules of conduct, live (in the same place), or wander from village to village: ‘This is indeed a small village, it is too populous, nor is it large; reverend gentlemen, go to the outlying villages to beg alms^[2].’

Some mendicant may have there kinsmen or relations, e. g. a householder or his wife, or daughters, or daughters-in-law, or nurses, or male and female slaves or servants. Such families with which he is connected by kindred or through marriage, he intends to visit before (the time of begging): ‘I shall get there (he thinks) food or dainties or milk or thick sour milk or fresh butter or ghee or sugar or oil or honey or meat or liquor, a sesamum dish^[3], or raw sugar, or a meal of parched wheat^[4], or a meal of curds and sugar with spices^[5]; after having eaten and drunk, and having cleaned and rubbed the alms-bowl, I shall, together with other mendicants, enter or leave the abode of a householder to collect alms.’ As this would be sinful, he should not do so. (4)

But, at the proper time, entering there with the other mendicants, he may there in these or other families accept alms which are acceptable and given out of respect for his cloth, and eat his meal.

This certainly is the whole duty, &c. (see end of lesson 1).

Thus I say. (5)

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

This precept applies, according to the commentator, only to sick monks, or such as can get nothing elsewhere.

[2]:

The just arrived monks should do as they are bidden.

[3]:

Saṃkuli.

[4]:

Pūya.

[5]:

Śikhariṇī.