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don't travel in the rainy season. And in India, it is not like here, the seasons are well cut: the rainy season is four months, the summer season is four months, the winter is four months. Lately they have been disturbed because of atomic experiments going on everywhere; otherwise, exactly on the expected date and day, the rains will begin, and exactly on the expected date and day the rains will stop.
The Jaina monk does not travel for the four months of the rainy season. He travels for eight months, and for four months he does not travel because the earth is wet, the grass has grown and many small insects, ants, are there in the grass. He cannot walk on the grass because the grass is alive. And he cannot walk on the wet ground because there may be some insects which the wetness encourages. He has to walk only on dry ground where he is absolutely certain that no life can be killed by his walking. So the rainy season is out of the question. He cannot even carry an umbrella: that will be a possession. So in the rainy season it will be most difficult. He does not have more than three clothes -- and all three clothes will be wet, so he will not have even clothes to change into.
Acharya Tulsi stays in one place. He has seven hundred monks, and for eight months those monks move around the country and for four months they come to live with the master in one place. But it is a very difficult problem: only very rich people can invite Acharya Tulsi to spend the rainy season in their city, because those seven hundred monks will come. That is nothing. When the seven hundred monks are there and the head of the monks -- who is like a pope in that sect -- is there, then thousands of followers will come to listen. Because in the rainy season in India, everything is closed, you cannot do anything -- the shops are empty -- so people start playing cards and chess. All kinds of festivals happen in the rainy season because everybody is free. People visit their relatives, there is nothing at risk in their business.
People visit their religious leaders. And it is a tradition that whosoever comes to see the head is a guest of the city, just as the head is a guest of
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