San Mu Bu Pm GBM 3 Np 6Asking an Unrelated Person for Robes
Pāli / Sanskrit:Aññātakaviññatti
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Exposition of the Aññātakaviññatti Sutta
Asking for Robes From an Unrelated Person
Background
This sutta is recorded in the Vinaya Piṭaka, specifically in the Nissaggiya Pācittiya section, delicate matters requiring declaration. These are detailed training rules given by the Buddha to the bhikkhu community, intended to protect purity and ensure that actions arise from mindfulness, not from craving or negligence.
The context in which this rule arose is connected with practical cases in the bhikkhu community. At first, bhikkhus usually asked for robes from people they knew or with whom they had a relationship: family members or faithful laypeople. However, some bhikkhus began asking for robes from people completely unknown to them (aññātaka, “unrelated person”), for the purpose of exploiting or taking advantage of people’s faith without care. This violated the spirit of the Sangha community, which is based on restraint from greed (lobha) and mutual respect.
Seeing this, the Buddha established the Aññātakaviññatti rule to protect collective ethics.
Main Content
This rule lays down that a bhikkhu should not ask for robes from a person with no direct relationship to him; in other words, he should not ask from someone who is not a lay devotee with long-standing faith in that bhikkhu or in the Sangha community. Asking for robes must follow a process that is careful and pure.
If a bhikkhu violates this rule, that is, asks directly or indirectly for robes from an unrelated person, he must perform an act of confession involving forfeiture (nissaggiya-pācittiya). It is not a complete defeat offense (pārājika), but a delicate fault that must be openly confessed before the Sangha and the offending item, in this case the robe, must be relinquished.
The spirit of this rule is not an absolute prohibition against asking for support from anyone, but an encouragement for bhikkhus to be careful, content (santuṭṭha), and not exploit the trust of others.
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