The wearing of white robes is the Svetambara counterpart to the Digambara ideal of nudity, and the disagreement over clothing is one of the two central issues, the other concerning women and liberation, that separated the Jain community into its two enduring branches. For the Svetambara the point is that renunciation lies in detachment of the heart rather than in the literal shedding of every possession, a stance that connects directly to their affirmation that women, robed like the monks, can attain liberation.
Svetambara ascetic discipline extends the principle of non-harm to minute, invisible life: many Svetambara monks and nuns, Sthanakvasi and Terapanthi ascetics especially, wear a cloth square, the muhpatti, across the mouth at all times or during speech, to avoid inadvertently inhaling and killing microorganisms in the air, and all carry a soft whisk, the rajoharana, to sweep the ground or a seat gently before sitting, clearing away insects that might otherwise be crushed. These everyday practices make Svetambara ahimsa a matter of continuous, minute bodily vigilance, a discipline shared in modified form with Digambara monastics, whose equivalent whisk is traditionally made of peacock feathers rather than wool or cotton strands.