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invite a naked Jaina monk means you need a temple which can do justice to his prestige, otherwise you are insulting him. So every big town, big city, goes on wasting money in raising temples because the naked monk can stay only in a temple. You will be surprised that Jainas are not many but they have so many temples all over the country. Even in places where not a single Jaina family lives, you will find Jaina temples, because the Jaina monks pass by there and, they need some place to stay.
You will be surprised -- it looks very funny to see the whole thing -- a Jaina monk is not supposed to beg from anybody other than a Jaina. Now, Jainas are very few, only three hundred thousand all over India -- just like a teaspoon full of salt in the ocean. There are thousands of towns and villages where there is not a single Jaina. But the Jaina monk has to move for eight months continually; he has to pass through villages where no Jaina lives.
So what do Jainas do? A procession of twenty families -- twenty buses, fifty buses -- will follow the monk. The reason is.... You will be surprised, why fifty buses? Just one bus or one car would be enough if one Jaina family were needed. No, the Jaina monk has to go begging and he is not allowed to beg from just one family. That is against his scripture. And when the scripture was made it was perfectly right, because there were so many monks, they were becoming a burden on society. So if a monk comes to one family, finds good food and starts coming there every day, he will become a torture to the family. And if other monks come to know, they will also start coming to the same family.
So the law was made that no monk begs from just one family -- not even a single whole meal. Even for a single whole meal, he has to beg from a few families: little pieces from here, little pieces from there. And he is not supposed to beg from the same people again tomorrow. No other monk is supposed to beg from the same place where some monk has already begged. Now this creates trouble: the monk has to beg from many families.
So fifty families, sixty families, with all kinds of foods... and for themselves also everything is
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