Book Title: Jain Spirit 2002 06 No 11
Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/528991/1

JAIN EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL FOR PRIVATE AND PERSONAL USE ONLY
Page #1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ www.jainspirit.org June-August 2002 Non Profit International Quarterly Publication JAIN SPIRIT JAIN GLOBALLY SHARING THE POST JAINI ERA NALINI BALBIR BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH MANEKA GANDHI MANISH MODI VALUES For Private & Personalise Caly helibrary.org Page #2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Let's pla 'www.dinodia.com For Pa n al Page #3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ WELCOME Dear Readers TORES Thank you for all your encouragement, enthusiasm and support for Jain Spirit. Every day, we receive at least one COOL email from different parts of the world complimenting the mo! magazine, and this is most encouraging. Recently, Mr. Bhikhu Shah in London commented on the professionalism of the magazine and how it stands out from the crowd, making all of us proud to be Jains. It is important to strive for quality and not give too much attention to costs, as money can always go, but quality remains for a long time. It endures. Jain Spirit is trying to leave an enduring legacy. I would like to explain how the editorial process works. Many believe that articles are just sent to us by writers and we simply publish them. That is far from the truth. As Jain Spirit is trying to present Jain ideas in a modern and accessible way, we have to spend a lot of time working with different writers, often training them in the process. We A scene outside Dinodia Photo Library in Kalbadevi, Mumbai. I spent two days at this library need writers who have a good understanding of Jainism, a researching Jain photographs, some of which are good experience of modern life and concerns, and an ability published in this issue to combine the two. They also need to be able to write well and articulate their ideas in a fun way. With some writers, temple and soul. Besides, the modern generation rarely we have to constantly remind them to write and encourage visits temples at all, so we need to focus on their life them to submit something. The topics which we cover temples - their offices, homes and social activities. do not just appear - a lot of thought and homework Some people think that we are only publishing a goes into them. Some of the ideas come from you, quarterly magazine, so why do we need full-time staff and our readers, some from writers, offices? Others ask how do we others from travelling, observing achieve it with such few and listening. Rarely do we A lot of time and resources resources? The task of the editor publish articles which we have are spent on research not commissioned, because we is to get the best out of people, to cultivate a team spirit and to often find that they do not fit the ensure that each magazine is needs of the audience or the language and tone of the fresh, stimulating, inspiring and most of all, a joy to read magazine. and reflect upon. This is why I need to travel, to meet We are also trying hard to keep the variety and publish readers and writers, to educate myself and thereby educate lots of short articles. Short articles mean we need more the readers. I spent the whole of February in India, with a writers, more editing, more design and proof-reading, and three day stopover in Dubai on the way back. This was my good administration and control. A lot of time is spent first trip as editor since the launch of the magazine, and it communicating with writers, giving them feedback and then was very busy, but fascinating too. India is and will always finally editing the text to fit the page and ensure there is be the global headquarters of Jainism. Through Jain Spirit, space for pictures. Picture research is also a task, and Alison we are trying to take this spirit of India to the world, and Kent is very good at it. She reads the article first, identifies bring the world to India for spiritual nourishment. I the core messages we wish to convey visually and then interviewed various leaders and sometimes asked difficult looks through our photo collections, which we are building questions, as the job of a writer is to question and probe. I and catalogueing, a process which is quite time consuming. met fascinating visionaries, and saw young children There is correspondence with authors for portrait photos, completely immersed in the colour and art inside a temple. and some writers also volunteer additional photos to support It was their playground, a fascinating thing to watch. I wrote their article. Our photo demands are quite tough, and we an article on this for the Times of India which was published generally do not publish low resolution or out of focus in the famous Speaking Tree column on 9th April. photos, or images of poor quality. We also need to crop Do enjoy this issue, and spread it. Let the messages flow photos and decide the layout, so that both text and image and enrich one and all. combine to give readers a clear and powerful message. The greatest difficulty is in finding good quality authentic Jain photos which convey contemporary meaning. There are lots of temple photographers and photographs, but these alone Executive Editor do not capture the spirit of Jainism and the link between [email protected] Atul K. Shah Page #4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ We invite our readers to send photos, letters, news and reports on events, and encourage others to subscribe. Financial support to enable this magazine to reach every corner of the world and every educational library is most welcome. By supporting Jain Spirit, you will be taking a pro-active step to inform everyone about this ancient and visionary culture. Please contact our Head Office for more information. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Anant Shah; Manish Shah; Dipen Shah; Pankaj Shah; Deepak Haria INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD: Prof. Cromwell Crawford; Prof. John Cort; Prof. Padmanabh Jaini; Mr. Shashikant Mehta; Dr. Laxmi Mal Singhvi; Mr. Benjamin Zephaniah NORTH AMERICAN TEAM: Prem Jain; Sulekh Jain; Surinder Jain; Surendra Sethi; Tansukh Salgia; Yogendra Jain. Executive Editor: Atul Keshavji Shah Assistant: Linda Garrad Consulting Editor: Satish Kumar Subscription: Tansukh Salgia (USA); Heather Heath (UK) Photo Editor: Alison Kent News: Prakash Mody Proofreader: Eszter Zaborszky Art Consultants: Raju Shah; Alison Kent Graphic Designers: Arty Graph Creations Tel: +44(0)1206 522759 Mobile +44(0)78 999 333 666 [email protected] www.artygraph.co.uk Distribution: Kenya, India, UK, North America, Australia Couriers: Planet Couriers 0208 9311111 INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS/CORRESPONDENTS: AUSTRALIA: Sunil Jain: [email protected] Amu Shah: [email protected] FRANCE: Pierre Amiel; Lalit Bhandari (Paris) INDIA: Rajendra P. Jain - [email protected] Lalit [email protected] Amit Shah: [email protected] INDONESIA: Dina & Jayu Shah - [email protected] IRELAND: Ciaran Reilly - [email protected] KENYA: Aarti Haria / Mahendra Khetshi Dharamshi, Nairobi Tel: Nairobi 247117 email: [email protected] Vinay Shah, [email protected] Tel: Mombasa 223058 MALAYSIA: Dipak Damani - [email protected] SINGAPORE: Mayur [email protected] UGANDA: Abhay Shah - [email protected] HEADQUARTERS AND EDITORIAL OFFICE: Jain Spirit 14 Cowdray Office Centre, Cowdray Avenue, Colchester, CO1 1QB, United Kingdom Tel: 01206-500037 Fax: 01206-500279 E-mail: [email protected] North American Office: Tel: Freephone 1-888-JAINISM E-mail: [email protected] 1884 Dorsetshire Road, Columbus, Ohio OH43229, USA WEBSITE: www.jainspirit.org Secure credit card subscription facility is available on the website. Contents Issue 11 June-August 2002 ISSN: 1532-0472 Jain Spirit is a company limited by guarantee GLOBAL NEWS & EVENTS THE POST JAINI ERA.... General News.... INDIA. STOP CRUEL TRANSPORT OF ANIMALS CowsArCool.com REGULARS NEWS IN BRIEF......... STOP PRESS QUOTES & QUIPS FORTHCOMING EVENTS.. BEHIND THE SCENES. ADVERTISEMENTS FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS FEATURES ENCOURAGE DREAMING Chen Raj Jain... ROADS TO JAINOLOGY Professor Nalini Balbir HOME AWAY FROM HOME Cromwell Crawford..... USA LIFESTYLE .4 ..6-13 14 ...16 ...17 ..18 ....19 ..57-62 ...63 ...20 ..22 .24 LEAVE A LIGHT FOOTPRINT Rose Skelton ACCEPTANCE IS THE KEY Rohin and Raoul Shah ducation international All rights reserved. This entire publication is the copyright of the publher. No part of Cis publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electrical ..26 28 Page #5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ART & LITERATURE POETRY IN STONE Ratilal Desai and Mahesh Dave....... GIRLS CAN'T STUDY? Mira Kamdar- Motibas Tattoos continued.... YOUTH BAHUBALI-MY HERO Kartik Jain........ FUN IN THE SUNOR IS IT? .36 RSPC... VOICES FOR CHOICES Benjamin Zephaniah.......37 I WAS CORNERED AND HUMILIATED Rakhee Shah..... CHOOSE YOUR MATES Reana Shah.............39 36 VALUING WORK Rae Sikora .38 WORSHIP PADMAVATI - A SYMBOL OF HOPE Dinesh Z. Shah.... WORKPLACE ...30 .34 ..40 42 ENVIRONMENT PEAKS OF SANCTUARY Michael Tobias.. GO ORGANIC Ketan Shah.. THE UGH-LY BUGLIES Maneka Gandhi... .44 INTER-FAITH .48 HISTORY CAN WOMEN ACHIEVE LIBERATION? Professor Padmanabh Jaini. MARY ALT PHILOSOPHY THE RELATIVES OF RELATIVITY Jason Brett Serle. 1907367 103ace VIEWPOINT SELF-PUBLISHING IS DAMAGING Manish Modi. ***** .50 ..52 .64 All back issues can be ordered by completing the subscription form. IN SPIRITATH SPIRIT JAIN SIJAIN SPIRIT JA SPOR SPIRIT JOIN SPIRIT JAIN SPIRITAIN CANON He Culture. Ho Future ..54 ncluding photocopying or any information storage or retrieval system without the prior permission of the paolisher: Ongal works copyright remain with the respective artists/writers. www.lainelibrary.org Page #6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ NEWS FEATURE THE POST SOAS inestimable." It has already spawned several books on Jainism and hundreds of research papers have cited this landmark work. Most recently, John Cort's Jains in the World (Oxford University Press, 2001) and the forthcoming second edition of Paul Dundas' book The Jains (Routledge) are but two examples. In the first quarter of 2002, two exceptional conferences on Jainism - one in Pomona, California in January, and the other in March at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London - have highlighted a new resurgence in western interest and scholarship of Jainism. Not surprisingly, most of the scholars of Jainism who live in the West today have not been raised in the Jain tradition. They range from countries as far as Japan in the East and North America in the West, including Scandinavia, Germany and other parts of Europe. At both events, the Jains from the local community attended the conferences and participated with a very positive interest in modern research. In London, the School of Oriental and African Studies is planning to set up a permanent lectureship on Jainism if it can attract appropriate funding. Research and scholarship has played an important part in the Jain tradition for hundreds of years. The philosophical depth and range of enquiry collected in the scriptures is staggering. In addition, the active and vibrant Jain community all over India with its temples, art and various communities (sanghas) provide a diverse and rich source of fieldwork for any scholar. Most Indological scholars have fallen deeply in love with India and their research is a true labour of love. The financial rewards of such work are scant and huge sacrifices are required - see the article by Dr. Nalini Balbir in this issue. As we reported in Issue 8, Jain scholarship in India is in decline due to the lack of career incentives and the huge personal investments required in pursuing such scholarship. In the West, there is a genuine interest but there is also need for support and involvement by the Jain community if this is to flourish. The beauty of western science is in its objective and methodical approach to research. It encourages knowledge which is not easily biased by sectarian views or religious beliefs. The study of Jainism at universities encourages its wider awareness and dissemination in scientific and intellectual circles, giving it the credibility it richly deserves. Unfortunately, most of the eminent western scholars of Jainism hardly ever teach a single course in Jainism, due to the lack of demand from students and lack of resources. They pursue much of their research single-handedly, without having a core of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Despite all this, the above conferences demonstrated a spirit of cooperation and mutual support, with the established scholars spending more time and effort to nurture new researchers in the field. Young Jains educated in the West are intelligent and a few are even beginning to pursue unconventional careers with undergraduate degrees in classics, literature or other social sciences. It is possible that we can attract these students into studying Jainism. The community can get directly involved in supporting research in the West, encouraging young minds to connect with such scholars and find out about the possibilities of pursuing degrees and research study in Jainism. For their Professor John Cort from Denison University, Ohio, giving a keynote address at the opening of the Jain conference at London University's prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies in February he publication of Padmanabh S. Jaini's Jaina Path of Purification in 1977 was a watershed in the western scholarship of Jainism. Prior to this, there was very little systematic elucidation of the breadth and scope of Jain philosophy and society. Western scholars had studied it from their own efforts, with no first hand knowledge of the Jain tradition. Dr. Paul Dundas of the University of Edinburgh has said: "This book can be regarded as having attained the authority of virtual primary source, and its value in providing an entry into Jainism in the English speaking world in recent years is 4 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ JAINI ERA part, the scholars are very happy to work with the living community of Jains as it helps them to have a deeper appreciation of the society and its interests and concerns. Such dialogue can also help them make valuable contacts for their research and fieldwork. They are very conscious of not distorting the original truths and beliefs of Jains. By its very nature, research is a slow process and requires the qualities of patience and perseverance. Also, the impact of research findings is usually not immediate it took over twenty years for the legacy of Professor Jaini's path-breaking book to be measured and fully appreciated. However, the impact of knowledge and research is likely to be more lasting and the Jain tradition is about living a sustainable lifestyle with a positive and lasting impact. Jains living in the West have a strong capability to cooperate with scholars and fund research, with some even directly enrolling on such courses. It seems that these have a particular appeal to women in the community, who traditionally have had much more KOVA NEWS FEATURE Members of the audience at SOAS in London interest in Jainism than men. We would like to request people interested in education and scholarship to come forward and participate in this revolution. There will be direct benefits for Jains in doing so it will enhance their knowledge, enable them to engage with like minded people and Delegates at the 'Celebrating Mahavira's Teachings' conference in Los Angeles (Pomona) in January 2002. The picture includes scholars, nuns, organisers and members of the local Jain community help raise the profile of Jain culture. The scholars will in turn draw much encouragement from this and continue their research and study of Jainism. After all, they love India! It is possible that with collective effort, we can place Jainism on the map as a distinct. tradition worthy of study and reflection. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 5 Page #8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ GLOBAL NEWS : INDIA the grey-black statue of Bahubali changed 108-FEET-HIGH MONUMENT TO NAVKAR MANTRA INAUGURATED colour from white, crimson, brown to chrome yellow, depending upon the substance used for the abhishek - either milk, vermilion, turmeric, sandalwood paste, sugarcane juice or coconut water. Each substance has its own significance. Water signifies cleansing, sandalwood paste is to spread the fragrance of Bahubali's virtues, milk is a symbol of purity and sugarcane juice relieves hunger. A scientific explanation is available as to why these liquids and pastes are used, and it is believed that the chemical properties of these substances provide the granite statue with a protective coating from rain and sunlight for 12 years until the next Mahamastakabhishek. It was the desire of King Veera Pandya, who installed the Bahubali statue in 1432, that the Mahamastakabhishek of Bahubali be ceremonially performed every 12 years so that the tradition of religious devotion is sustained. A special cover and special cancellation (rubber stamp) was issued by the Indian Postal Authority at the famous Jain pilgrimage centre Karkala, Karnataka on the first day of the Mahamastakabhishek of the 47-feet-tall statue of Bhagwan Bahubali. BAHUBALI VENERATED 15 rahamastakabhishek (great head anointing) of Lord Bahubali and the Panchakalyanak of Neminath Tirthankara were held at Karkala, Karnataka, India from 16-26 February 2002. Huge crowds watched the ceremony of the majestic, monolithic granite statue of Bahubali, the symbol of ahimsa, satya and dharma and the embodiment of renunciation at the hillock of the serene town of Karkala. The ceremony began at an auspicious hour with priests chanting religious texts. Pots of water were poured from a specially erected scaffolding over the head of the statue followed by the ritual pouring of different substances such as ghee, saffron, curd, flower petals and vermilion. As many as 1,008 pots (kalashas) were used in the ceremony. Each person sponsoring a pot ascended on the specially erected platform on one side and descended from the other. The Mahamastakabhishek was conducted under the guidance of PattAcharyavarya Lalithakeerthi Bhattaraka and Acharya-ratna Subalasagarji of Karkala Jain Math Thousands of people sat across the hill as DiJO DE WIL Bec tuu JIS . 16 Z DOS beautiful and magnificent structure solely devoted to Navkar Mantra, the most sacred prayer, was inaugurated at Aradhanadham, Jamnagar, India. This was a dream project of Mr Shashikant Mehta, a daily worshipper and strong believer in the power of the ancient Navkar Mantra. The monument is 108 feet high and depicts Panch Parmeshthi - five godly figures to whom the worshipper bows down whilst reciting Navkar Mantra. These 6 Jain Spirit * June - August 2002 Jain Education Intemational www jainelibrary.org Page #9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ are Arihanta enlightened souls, Siddha liberated souls, Acharya head of spiritual teachers, Upadhyayas teachers and Sadhus and Sadhvis - monks and nuns. There are idols of these Parmeshthis in the colours prescribed by the Jain scholars. One can climb inside this monument by using a spiral staircase and ring a bell of victory. There is a circular hall too, partly sunk below ground level, designed for meditation purposes only. It has the Navkar Mantra inscribed on the wall with the murtis of all Parmeshthis and Mahavir Swami in the centre. The whole ceremony took three days and involved Navkar Mantra Poojan, the Pooja of 68 letters of Navkar Mantra and the installation of various idols. During the past two years many people had written Navkar Mantra in the books provided to them. The mantra was written 6.8 million times. These hand-written books were wrapped in prescribed colours of the mantra and ceremoniously placed in the small cellar of the circular hall. The idea was to keep the positive and divine pudgalas (particles) by permanently storing the books. The ceremonies started on 18 January 2002 and the final part of door opening was conducted on 20 January 2002. More than a thousand people participated in this unique event. All ceremonies were conducted with the blessings of many Acharyas and monks. Vajrasen Vijayji was the inspirational force behind this project. Three wellknown Jain families from the UK and East Africa performed the auspicious ceremonies. They were: Mrs. Vijyaben Mehta, Mrs. Nishaben and Mr. Mahendra Mehta's families, Mrs. Suryakalaben, Mr. Maganlal Motichand Chandaria, Mrs. Sumatiben and Mr. Harakhchand Nemchand Shah. A book explaining all aspects of Navkar Mantra by Jashubhai Kapashi was released on 19 January 2002. GLOBAL NEWS EMINENT SAINT HONOURED A Jain monks in discussion, Ahmedabad, Gujarat major ceremony in the memory of the late Acharya Ramsoorishwarji was held at Sabarmati, Ahmedabad, India throughout February. Thousands of people attended the daily festivities which included poojas, lectures by saints, an exhibition on Jainism and Pratishta. The celebrations cost millions of rupees. Elaborate invitations were printed, some of them weighing over 1kg each and printed in full colour on very high quality paper. The funding for the celebrations was raised from the community and there were many poojas and gheeboli (auctions). Hundreds of monks and nuns attended the festival. MEETING GOD-PHOTO EXHIBITION Steve McCurry's Portraits of Worship: Personal Shrines of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in and around New York was part of the Meeting God Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History on 31 March 2002. The exhibition portrayed devotees at a variety of venues, from Wall Street to suburban New Jersey. Steve McCurry is one of the world's finest photographers. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 7 Page #10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ GLOBAL NEWS MASS INITIATION CEREMONY AT PALITANA bhImAlatIkumArajI (Oma nediomaTi nisAnamAra rANa) ) | pokAkumAra calAna mahAsA (vAnapura ji kumAra mAnatAta moTha mAnI) Maral (tavavAdAmAmArI yopaTalAlI (8) ta yArI mohAlI (mA) pAlI N or the first time in 400 years, B on 16 February 2002 a mass initiation (diksha) of 36 individuals was carried out at Adinath temple of Shatrunjaya, near Palitana in the holy presence of Acharya Gunratna Surishwarji. Samovasarana, similar to the one used by Bhagwan Mahavir during his discourses after enlightenment, was arranged at the place of diksha. The Maharaj has so far initiated 175 people. On the preceding day a huge and colourful procession paraded throughout the city as part of the celebrations. Ms. Lalita Oswal of Manalgaon and Harsha Chordia of Bhosari, Pune were initiated on 6 January by Param Vidushi Kanchan Kanwarji, who belongs to the Jain Shraman Sangh at Sholapur in Maharashtra, India. S. W. Snehlata, daughter of Prakash Chandji Chaturmutha and Jayshri, daughter of Anandrao Jagtap were initiated as Sadhvi by Satyasadhnaji Maharaj in the Jain Sangh of Chennai on 17 January Ridhi Jain was initiated Bhagwati Diksha by the Acharya Dr. Shivmuni on 27 January at Shastrinagar, New Delhi. Upadhyayshri Vishalmuni, Sumanmuni, Amarmuni, Dr. Rajendramuni and several distinguished guests graced the occasion. Jain Bhagwati Diksha was accorded to five disciples at Meerut on 17 February by Pravartak Sumanmuni on his 61st birthday in the holy presence of Acharya Shivmuni and many other sadhus and sadhvis. Upadhyayshri Maniprabhu Sagarji initiated Ashok Lookad as Muni Neelesh Sagarji at Mokalsar, Rajasthan on 16 January. Acharya Sidhant Sagarji, granted muni diksha and initiated Shreyans Sagarji at Kanpur on 20 January Acharyashri Ramlalji initiated Priyanka and Chandanbala, two sisters from the Tated family of the village Kapasan in Rajasthan on 25 February. G emma ) dIpalamAra krImAlI maga nigamamA jAdA bAlavAnimAmalosAla ho calImanosAmajI (sanala) bhUkha mila jAvarAjAjI nagarAdharSa motIlAla maMgalajI jI jalagAMva pUrNimAmA mAlAlajI (4) bhojakumArI dhanAjI (pidanA) julIkumArI jAnuttAlajI (jimA) mAramezabhAI ( bhAbItakumAra monIlAlajI (rajI) ra mogara bastImalajI malA murga ) puede ser prem i Portraits of the people prior to their diksha (initiation) ceremony. According to tradition, they have to dress in their best clothes at the ceremony, and discard everything to adopt a saintly lifestyle. As saints, they do not own anything and wear the simplest white clothes 8 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Jain Education Intemational Page #11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ GLOBAL NEWS BRITISH MP'S CAMPAIGN VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA AND SALLEKHANA ontinuing the fine tradition of the annual Rooplal Jain Lectures, Dr. Christopher Key Chapple presented an exciting and informative lecture on 7 March 2002 at the University of Toronto Professor Christopher Chapple entitled Jainism, Bioethics and the End of Life. Dr. Chapple, Professor of Theological Studies and Director of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, opened his lecture with a fascinating historical overview of the sacrament of sallekhana (deliberate fasting to death, usually undertaken at an old age). Explaining the religious meaning of this ceremony within its earliest cultural contexts, he then continued with an elucidation of the significance underlying several contemporary examples of the custom. This was followed by a detailed examination of the questions and concerns raised in contemporary medical bioethics over such issues as religious fasting to death and both passive and active euthanasia. To paraphrase Dr. Chapple, the current bioethical dilemma is that Western social institutions must somehow come to terms with Eastern religious perspectives. For example, the rite of sallekhana is not and should not be considered as an act of suicide or active euthanasia - acts to be discouraged. However, as an extremely significant religious form of spirituality and divinity, it is an act that ought to be supported within the contemporary medical community. In other words, sallekhana is just one example of what could be called a 'good' or 'wise death, an act that could be utilised in the West to successfully guide those near the end of life through the process of death and into the next birth. The lecture concluded with an animated discussion by an audience of about seventy over the 'pros' and 'cons' of sallekhana within the contemporary Western environment INDIA. STOP CRUEL TRANSPORT OF ANIMALS PETA CowsAreCool.com MPs (from left to right): Piara Khabra (from Punjab), Jeremy Corbyn and Lynn Jones potesting before the Parliament lanking a PETA 'cow holdingsee British MPs defending India's R a banner reading, "India: Stop animals." Jains are involved in such 1 Cruel Transport of Animals", efforts. Ms. Pramoda Chitrabhanu is several Members of Parliament a director of PETA, India. Visit gathered opposite the British www.PETAIndia.com Parliament in London on 12 March It is illegal to beat, kick or 2002 to protest against the cruel overload animals; transport them in transport and slaughter of Indian vehicles that cause suffering; deprive cows, buffaloes, goats and other animals of food, water and shelter; animals killed for leather. In sell abused animals or kill an animal defiance of the Indian law, corrupt in an inhumane manner. The skin-traders march cows, buffaloes transport and slaughter of cows, and other animals for days and cram buffaloes, goats and other animals in them into overcrowded lorries, India violate all these laws, yet which causes many to suffer broken abuses are rampant. Bribes bones and suffocation. Those who encourage police officers, collapse from exhaustion or injuries politicians, veterinarians and other have their eyes smeared with chilli officials to look the other way. The peppers and their tailbones broken in Indian government has pledged on an effort to keep them moving. At both local and national levels to abattoirs, the animals typically have address the cruelty, suffering and their throats hacked in full view of corruption, associated with the one another and are often illegal transport and slaughter of dismembered and skinned alive. animals for leather. But this is on England is the third biggest importer paper only and in reality nothing is of leather from Indian animals. being done to prevent this cruelty to PETA's boycott of Indian leather has animals. Recent reports indicate that been joined by dozens of top cattle, goats and other animals retailers worldwide, including continue to be trucked across India at Lambert Howarth, Buffalo Boots breakneck speed by what people and Clarks, costing India an describe as the meat mafia. The estimated US$40 million in lost animals are still deprived of water, contracts. food and rest, and the lorries are so "It's time for the Indian government overcrowded (three to four times to wash the leather industry's blood more than the legal limit) that the off its hands," says PETA's European animals fall and suffocate and their coordinator Dawn Carr. "Mahatma horns gore each other throughout the Gandhi would have been pleased to long journey. June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 9 Page #12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ GLOBAL NEWS WINNING ESSAY: MY PILGRIMAGE TO SHATRUNAJAYA Ashni R. Shah My cousin, my grandmother, my grandfather and I went to Palitana. It was a lovely day. The sun had just risen and it seemed very peaceful everywhere. We started climbing at 7:00 a.m. Before we started climbing we did darshan at the Jay Taleti. We did three pradikshana, then dhoop, divo, sathio with rice and finally the chaityavandan. My grandmother taught us what to do. Then we finally started our long awaited climb. When we had climbed a little bit, the weather changed and it started to rain. We reached Saraswati mandir. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, so we prayed that we may become clever. The temple is very small and there was a beautiful idol of Devi Saraswati. On our way we passed many small temples, resting places and pratimas. When we reached the top, all drenched, I felt a quiver of happiness. I had climbed up! We were very lucky because we got to do the pooja and pakshal of the Dada. We also did pakshal of the Adinath Bhagwan's feet. While I did this, my mind was peaceful. We did darshan again. At the top there is a Holy Rayan Tree, Lord Adinath gave his sermon under this tree. People say that if the milk from the tree falls on your head you will go to moksha in your third birth. Finally we climbed down. It was hot. I felt so good after the climb. I wished I had a chance to climb up again. By Ashni Rajesh Shah, aged 10, from Nairobi, Kenya 10 Jain Spirit June August 2002 TIMES FOUNDATION PROMOTES INDIAN SPIRITUALITY Mrs. Indu Jain, President, Times Foundation, launched a major new initiative at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 24 February 2002. In association with the Bharatiya Jnanpith, FICCI, FLO and other chambers of commerce, management institutions and the Indian Council of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, an interactive forum was initiated to bring together scholars and leaders engaged in the propagation of India's rich heritage. Some of the main objectives of the forum were: Mrs. Indu Jain, President, Times Foundation To focus on the most effective ways and means to highlight India's heritage, as well as its ancient sciences and philosophies in order to enhance the image of India so that it is acknowledged as a land of harmony and tolerance - one which nurtures and co-exists with several religions. To announce an 'International Exchange Programme' designed for scholars and leaders to create an understanding and cultural partnership between nations and communities. To accept nominations from fluent English-speaking scholars to carry the mission and philosophy through which peace and harmony can be created all over the world, which is imperative in the current global scenario of terrorism and violence. To create synergies to extend the reach of Indian values in a synoptic manner and highlight them through the world media. For further information visit: spirituality.indiatimes.com MAHAVIR Celebrating Mahavir's Teachings: Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life - was the theme of the two-day international conference that brought together an international group of scholars to celebrate the 2600th Birth Anniversary of Vardhaman Mahavir. California State Polytechnic University hosted the conference on 19-20 January 2002 at Cal Poly Pomona. It was co-sponsored by the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), Infinity Foundation and the Jain societies of Southern California and San Diego. Around 200 people attended. Prof. Tara Sethia, Organising Committee Chair, provided an introduction highlighting the need to explore the significance of the Jain principles of ahimsa and anekanta (non-absolutism) in the context of violence and intolerance that prevails in our world today. The Conference served as an opportunity to understand the ideas and ideals of Jain principles of ahimsa and anekanta better in terms of their practical significance for peaceful and harmonious coexistence of individuals, families, communities and nations. The keynote speaker was Mr. Satish Kumar from Schumacher College, England, Editor of Resurgence magazine. His talk Mahavir and Reverential Ecology inspired and enthused the audience. The conference summary and response was delivered by Prof. Padmanabh S. Jaini from the University of California, Berkeley, who illuminated the themes and questions Cetic www.jaine.org Page #13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ GLOBAL NEWS WAS A GENIUS with analysis drawn from the original Jain texts in Prakrit and Sanskrit as well as his own research. The Conference consisted of five separate panels, each with different approaches to the theme. The four-page abstracts and bios of speakers are available on the website: www.csupomona.edu/-jainism. The speakers and their subjects were as follows: Conference Programme Panel 4: Towards Greater Understanding Through Ahimsa and Anekantvada chaired by Amar Salgia. The Tremendous Practicality of Anekantvada by Gabriel E. Figueroa; Non-violent Education and Parenting by Ruth Beaglehole. Panel 1: Ahimsa and Non-violence chaired by Joseph Prabhu. Ahimsa and Non-violence: A Comparison of Religious and Cultural Values by John Cort; Ahimsa and Compassion by Kristi Wiley; Jain Response to Terrorism by Kim Skogg Panel 5: Education about Jainism chaired by Phyllis Herman. Unifying Jain Concepts with Day-to-day Thinking and Behaviour by Pallavi Gala and Biren Mehta; Jain Education in the 21st Century by Sudhir Shah; Barefoot on the Cyber Rout: Imaging Jainism in Higher Education by Sudhamahi Regunathan; Jainism in the College Curriculum by Tara Sethia. NEW STAMPS AND CANCELLATIONS Jain Sangh of Patna and Bihar Puravid Parishad jointly organised a national seminar on Bhagwan Mahavir in Art, Archaeology and Literature. The seminar was held at Patna, Bihar on 2-3 March 2002. The Indian Post provided a special cover depicting a photo of a damaged murti of the Jain Tirthankara. This murti was found in Lohanipur, near Patna and exhibited at Patna Museum. It is from the Mauryan period, third century BC and is the oldest Jain murti in the world. The special cancellation bears the line sketch and has a bronze Jain Dharma Chakra of 2nd century BC. For installation (anjanshalaka pratishtha) and initiation (diksha) a special cover and special cancellation was issued at Malpura, Rajasthan on 10 February 2002. The special cover depicted a colour picture of the beautiful local Jinkushalsuri Temple and the special cancellation had the footprints of Gurudev Jinkushalsuri. A special cover and a special cancellation were issued at New Delhi on the 70th Birthday of "Osho' Bhagwan Rajneesh (born: 11 December 1931), who was a Jain. It has an image of Osho with thousands of his disciples in the background, with his message at the back: "I want to remind you that whether I am here or not, the celebration has to continue. If I am not here, then it has to be more intense and it has to spread around the world. Celebration is my religion. Love is my message. Silence is my truth." Panel 2: Anekantvada and Beyond chaired by Maria Heium. The Ontological and Epistemological Significance of Anekantvada by John M. Koller; Mahavir, Anekantvada and the Contemporary World by Samani Charitrapragya; Multi-dimensional Significance of Anekanta in Present-day Social Life by Kamala Jain; Beyond Anekantvada: A Jain Perspective on Tolerance by Paul Dundas. Panel 3: Ahimsa and Anekanta in Jain Tradition chaired by Fujinaga Sin. Examples of Anekanta and Ahimsa: The Case of the Early Jains of Mathura in Art and Epigraphy by Sonia Rhie Quintanilla; Religious Dissonance and Reconciliation: The Haribhadra Story by Christopher Key Chapple; Anekanta, Ahimsa and the Question of Pluralism by Anne Vallely. Prof. Paul Dundas, University of Edinburgh, Scotland commented: "The whole weekend was a most pleasant experience, not least because it was so efficiently organised and hosted. All papers were interesting. There were of course differences in emphasis and approach amongst speakers but I do think the listeners derived some benefit from hearing them. I was particularly impressed by the youngsters I met who took it all seriously." Dr. Sonya Quintanilla, UC-Irvine & UCLA commented in her message after attending the Conference: "I thought you might be happy to know that yesterday at the start of my seminar at UCLA I gave a summary of what took place at the Jain conference. As a result, Bob Brown, Prof. of South and Southeast Asian Art at UCLA, decided to offer a seminar on Jain Art in Spring 2003! He agreed that Jain studies are sorely under-represented in university curricula. This is what we need: professors to take the initiative and push for the offering of courses in Jainism," LAR PATNA www ANS, ACHE MARCH - e 1 Mr. Satish Kumar addressing the audience The oldest Jain statue, with cancellation June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 11 Page #14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ GLOBAL NEWS WORKSHOP ACHIEVEMENTS AT LONDON UNIVERSITY * PADMA BHUSHAN AWARD FOR U.S. CONGRESSMEN PALONE AND ACKERMAN: Two best friends were awarded with the Padma Bhushan on India's Republic Day on United States' Capitol Hill, 26 January 2002. Congressmen Frank Pallone and Garey Ackerman, both Democrats representing New Jersey and New York, were recognised for their contribution in improving ties between the two nations by conferring to them one of the highest civilian honours. Last year Pallone organised a Jain prayer in the Congress as part of the American celebrations of the 2600th Mahavir Birthday. - MR. GYAN CHAND JAIN, The world famous School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London hosted an international workshop on 15 March where speakers flew in from all over the world. Dr Peter Flugel organised the meeting and there were 40 delegates from the local Jain community. Speakers included Dr. Paul Dundas, Dr. Fujinaga Sin from Japan, Olle Qvarnstrom from Sweden, Professor N. L. Jain from India, Dr. Whitney Kelting, Dr. Kristi Wiley and Dr. Sherry Fohr from the USA. Professor John Cort gave the inaugural lecture. All participants found it a rather stimulating event and the scholars were very impressed by the participation and enthusiasm of the local Jain community. . MR. PANNALAL SURANA has been elected 50th President of Bharat Jain Mahamandal (BJM), the 102-yearold All India Jain Organisation for the next three years. An industrialist, Mr. Surana is actively associated with several social, educational and religious organisations. BJM is a leading national organisation engaged in developing fraternity amongst Jains, offering social services, promoting vegetarianism and propagating the principles of Tirthankara Mahavir, such as peace and non-violence. . DR. N. P. JAIN was one of the 16 scholars in Sanskrit, who was awarded the Certificate of Honour for his contribution to the language. . DR. NAGESH JAIN of Delhi was honoured as Samaj Ratna (community jewel) for his contribution to the society at the All India Shvetambara Sthanakwasi Jain Conference. * PROF. MANUBHAI SHAH, founder and managing trustee of the Consumer Education and Research Centre, Ahmedabad, Gujarat was presented with the Great Son of the Soil Award by the All India Conference of Intellectuals. The citation for Prof. Shah referred to his tireless work for consumer rights and their protection. He is now concentrating on the promotion and protection of public interest, law and legal services to disadvantaged groups. The AICOI is proud to have a genius, a man of calibre. He has also recently been appointed to the Three Members Consumer Disputes Appellate Committee of the Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply Company representing consumer interests. - MR. AMIT RAJAT PATEL 23, Crew Chief of USA's UH-60 Black Hawk 101 Aviation Squad, has been declared "Soldier of the Year". Amit joined the US Army in 1998 after completing his studies in New Delhi, India. He currently studies Aeronautical Science at Daytona Beach in Florida. Scholars from all over the world came to London. The picture above shows them enjoying a dinner after the conference at Diwana Vegetarian Restaurant in London Chairman of Shri Chintamani Parshvanath Jain Shvetambara Mandir Trust, Haridwar has been awarded Padma Shri by the President of India on Republic Day 2002. He was born at Gidderbaha, a small town in Punjab. During his school and college days he used to write short stories in the leading Urdu dailies like Pratap, Milap and Tej. Nearly forty of his stories were published in these dailies. Although he was trained as an electronic engineer, his love for writing made him a publisher. He wrote the first forty books on electronics, published by his company BPB Publications. This was in 1958 when such books were not published in India. BPB is the top publisher of computer books in the whole of Asia. TORONTO: NO VOLUNTEERS! An unusual situation arose at the recent annual general meeting of the Jain Society of Toronto. The society invited nominations for the 15-member executive committee (EC), but no one came forward voluntarily to serve it! In the past, an election was a great event. However, this year interest amongst the 460 families (and about 90 present?) dwindled considerably. After a great deal of persuasion, only the Vice-president and the Treasurer positions were filled and as many as thirteen positions remained vacant. The outgoing EC could not hand over the charge and therefore had to continue as the Caretaker Committee. Consequently, the election process will be repeated within ninety days. Other regular items such as reports and financial statements were approved. 12 Jain Spirit * June - August 2002 Page #15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ EIGHT-YEAR-OLD BOY COMMITS SUICIDES Arihant Jain, an eight-year-old introvert boy, studying in third standard at a Dehradoon school committed suicide on the last day of his vacation because he did not want to return to his residential school, reported the Hindustan Times. According to the Delhi Police, Arihant is the youngest person to have committed suicide in the city. He was spending his vacation with his family at Btheir house in Vishwas Nagar in East Delhi. Balesh Jain, Arihant's father, who runs a computer institute, enrolled his son at the residential school last July. The incident reportedly occurred at 3 pm on Sunday, when Arihant was alone at home with his mother. "However, Seema, his mother be intercepted him," said DCP East Manoj Lall. "But when Seema went to her room to get dressed, Arihant found a rope and hung himself in the courtyard." The boy's neck had ligature marks. The police have registered a case of suicide. "One morning, as his parents were helping his younger sister prepare for her school, he complained that he missed his parents' attention. He was an introvert and did not mix around much. with the other children in the neighbourhood," said a police officer. "Even on his return, he spent most of the time playing with his younger sister inside the house." Neighbours expressed their shock over the boy's death. "He was like any child in the locality. We never noticed any sign of aggression or disturbed behaviour," a neighbour said. A noted psychiatrist in the city commented, "Though this is an unusual incident, instances of depression are not uncommon among children. In this case, since the child was small, it appears that he missed his parents and was not able to communicate it properly to his family." OBITUARIES Mahasati Sugankunwarji passed away at Beawar on 26 December 2001 after a protracted illness. Jain Acharya Vijay Indradinn Suriswarji, 97, passed away on 16 January 2002 at Ambala City, Punjab. He accepted the Jain order at the early age of 17. He studied Hindi, Sanskrit and Prakrit, and was fluent in many other languages. His Guru Vijay Samudra Surishwarji bestowed him with the title of Acharya in 1971. His contribution to Jain literature and society was immense. He will always be remembered for his role in developing backward communities in Gujarat, spreading education through. schools and colleges. Aryika Suparshwamataji, disciple of Acharya Vardhmansagarji passed away on 28 December 2001 at Dhariavad, Rajasthan. She took a vow for a twelve-year Samadhi and she observed fasting during the last Chaturmas period by consuming limited amounts of apple and water only once every three or four days. Aryika Vipulmatimataji died on 12 December 2001 at Dhariavad, Rajasthan in the holy presence of her Guru, Acharya Vardhmansagarji, after 27 years of a life of austerity, selfrestraint and religious fervour. She had been accepting only limited amounts of food during the four months of Chaturmas monsoon and for the last twelve days she was living only on water. Panditratna Udaimuniji, 74, left for his heavenly abode at Indore. He was a great scholar and had served the cause of his religion for half a century. Acharya Vijay Kalapurna Surishwarji died on the morning of 16 February. Cremation (agnisanskar) was performed at Bhaktamar Mandir, Shankheshwar, Gujarat in the evening of 18 February 2002. GLOBAL NEWS Acharya Kalpurna Surishwarji, 80, passed away on 16 February 2002 at Kosholav, Jalore. The Acharya commanded great respect from everyone and hundreds of people thronged to have his darshan. He was an apostle of austerity and spiritualism. He worked relentlessly for public consciousness about spiritualism, devotion, righteousness and liberation. He was born to the Loonkar family at the village Phalodi, near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. His body was taken in a chariot by his followers to Shankheshwar, Gujarat, which was his favourite place of devotion and worship. Sadhvi Vishuddhmatimataji's, 72, last rites were performed on 22 January 2002 at a Nandanvan pilgrimage centre, Udaipur, Rajasthan. She was a very learned scholar and had written about 36 books. On 17 January 1990, she took a twelve-year Samadhi Sallekhana Vrata from Ajeetsagarji Maharaj. On 16 January 2002, after consuming only limited amount of food, she gave up water. Acharya Vardhmansagarji and 33 other sadhus were present at the time of her Samadhi. She was cremated on the same day at 10 am with more than ten thousand people attending. Two 105-year-old Jain widows passed away together at Manipuri in U.P. as it had been their wish. They were extremely close to each other. Their dead bodies were placed on a common platform and were cremated together. They were Mrs. Devi, wife of Rangilal Jain and Gunmala, wife of Ugrasen Raparia. They had announced earlier that since they had lived together for so many years, sharing their happiness and sorrows, they would also die together. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 13 Page #16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ NEWS IN BRIEF ANCIENT JAIN TEMPLE UNEARTHED Gujurat, India: An ancient temple, which is said to have housed Hindu and Jain Gods was unearthed during a 100 feet excavation in May last year in Vadnagar, Gujarat. It is said that in 1968, after a local farmer stumbled upon two Jain murtis near the site, the local villagers and leaders of the nearby two communities excavated the area. It is believed that the temple is dated back to some time between the 11th and 13th century. Over forty Jain murtis were carefully preserved in the sand near the foundation of the temple. It is thought that the villagers buried the murtis to protect them from destruction caused by Muslim invasions, which was common at that time. 205 DAY FAST BY MAHASATI MOHANMALAJI India: Mahasati Mohanmalaji, who had been fasting for seven months, broke the fast on 6 January 2002 in the presence of her Guru Acharya Shivmuni. The Sadhviji accomplished an austerity fast for a record period of 311 days in 1996-97. BHAGWAN MAHAVIR'S 2600TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS Ahimsa University, Indore, India: The Madhya Pradesh State Government has accepted the proposal submitted by Jains to establish an Ahimsa University at Indore and to provide the necessary land. Digambara and Shvetambara sects have joined hands to put forth the proposal. It was further declared that out of the total requirement of Rs.20 crores for the project Rs.10 crores will be raised by the Jain community, while the Central and State Governments will contribute Rs.5 crores each. The State Government will allot the land in lieu of the cash grant. PARK NAMED AFTER BHAGWAN MAHAVIR Lucknow, India: Hathi Park in Lucknow, India has been renamed as Bhagwan Mahavir Park. The local Jain community led by Acharya Viveksagarji and other monks brought a nine-feet-high marble murti in Padamasan posture of Bhagwan Mahavir for installation in the centre of the park. ANCIENT JAIN SCULPTURE OF PADMAVATI FOUND Karnataka, India: An ancient stone sculpture of Padmavati has been found at the famous pilgrimage site of Shankara Honda, Sirsi, Karnataka. The black stone sculpture is about 50 cm high, 25 cm wide and 8 cm thick. It is dated from the 14-15th centuries, of post-Vijayanagar period. This is characterised with the carving of Jain yakshinis on either side of the Tirthankara sculpture. It is the samabhangi standing posture with dvibhuja (two hands); a lotus in the left hand, while the right hand is in the abhaya mudra. The facial portion is damaged but the sindoor on the forehead is visible and the hair is neatly combed and adorned by a hair ornament. The sculpture was probably installed in a Jain settlement but later it may have been thrown into the lake, as it may not have been worshipped. This reveals the existence and survival of the Jain tradition in the Kannada region. JAINS JOIN HINDU-MUSLIM PEACE MARCH Ahmedabad, India: Hindus and Muslims marched together on 4 March 2002 through the streets shattered and bloodied by India s worst religious strife in a decade. As an uneasy calm ensued after days of killings, they commanded peace. Wearing white clothes to symbolise peace, about 250 people walked down the roads littered with debris, passed wreckages of torched shops and homes to the riverside spiritual retreat where Mahatma Gandhi declared his philosophy of non-violent protest. A few Jains also joined in the rally. Meanwhile, soldiers and paramilitary troops enforced an uneasy peace in the main cities and towns of Gujarat. NATIONAL PHILATELIC EXHIBITION India: INPEX EMPIREPEX-2001, an Indian National Philatelic Exhibition was held at Nasik between 22-26 December 2001, in which over 200 stamp collectors from all over India participated. Mr. Sudhir Jain, an eminent Jain from Nasik, exhibited 80 sheets of stamps and covers on Jainism. The collection was highly applauded by the visitors and the jury awarded it the Silver Bronze Medal. Mr Jain s collection was organised in this sequence: 1. Symbols of Jainism, 2. Essence of Jainism: conceptions, principles, admirers, Siddha, Panchkalyanak Tirthankaras and their identification signs and other pious souls, 3. Jain Pilgrimage Centres, 4. Jain Architecture, 5. Jain Personalities, 6. Jain Celebrations, 7. Jain Institutions, and 8. Jain Message to the World. Contact: [email protected] AHIMSA VARSH, THE YEAR OF NON-VIOLENCE CELEBRATIONS USA: Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, USA and all Jain organisations of New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas jointly planned the concluding event on 13-14 April 2002 at Fords, New Jersey. Dr. L. M. Singhvi is the keynote speaker and several scholars, sadhus and sadhvis will give lectures. Presentations, publications, cultural events, recitation and rendition of Navkar Mahamantra, art and book exhibitions, youth speech and essay contests were also organised. JAIN STATUES STOLEN Kanpur, India: Three Ashtdhatu (8 metals) murtis of Tirthankara Bhagwan were stolen recently from the Digambara Jain temple in Kanpur, India. It is sad to observe that thefts of murtis and other antique items from Jain temples have been happening in different parts of India more and more frequently. The stolen items are rarely recovered, nor are the culprits brought to justice. 14 Jain Spirit * June - August 2002 Page #17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ NEWS IN BRIEF Compiled by Prakash Mody AHIMSA AND HUMANITARIANISM IS THE BIGGEST RELIGION Mumbai, India: Mahavir International organised World Peace Through Non-Violence, a two-day World Religious Conference at Mumbai, India. Leaders from different religions joined to express their views on world peace, communal harmony, non-violence and other related issues. They said that ahimsa and humanitarianism were the biggest amongst all religions today, and that inculcation of respect and understanding towards other traditions is necessary. Ms. Indu Jain pointed out that the responsibility for avoiding violence and maintaining peace cannot be thrust entirely on the Government; religious leaders should ensure peace, unity and harmony amongst the different sections of the society. Others who spoke included, Acharya Sadhvi Chandanaji, Kushal Chand Jain and Surendrasingh Savai (Jain). Archbishop Cardinal Dais of Bombay (Roman Catholic, Christian), Maulana Karim Parekh (Muslim), Dasturji Jamapasa (Parsi, Indian Zoroastrian), Jayendra Sarsawati (Hindu), Lama Lonbjeng (Buddhist), Mukhya Granthi and Gyani Pooran Singh (Sikh). They all emphasised the need to develop mutual harmony, respect and goodwill amongst all sections of communities and religions. AHIMSA YATRA BY ACHARYA MAHAPRAGYA India: Head of Terapanth, Acharya Mahapragyaji started his extensive three-year Ahimsa Yatra, (non-violence promotion journey) covering the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. More than 300 monks and nuns and hundreds of followers joined in the Yatra, walking from village to village with short stopovers at selected places. Through discussions, discourses, holding of prayers, distribution of literature and displays of posters and banners, they spread the message of nonviolence, peace, communal harmony, moral and ethical values and austerity in life. Awakening of non-violence, consciousness, education and training, development of backward communities, improvement of moral values and the building of a healthy and tension-free society were among the themes of Mahapragyaji and YuvAcharyamuni Mahashramanji. A seminar was organised during Mahapragyaji s stay at Jodhpur. Students and teachers from the University and other institutions were there to discuss the topic - The Influence of Science of Living on Valuebased Education. A regional conference was arranged on the theme Economics and nonpossessiveness of Mahavir, where the chief guest was the Finance Minister. A National Conference on ahimsa was held at Jaipur on 20-21 January 2002, where the Rajasthan Governor, eminent jurist and MP. Dr. L. M. Singhvi, High Court Judges and many others were present. McDONALD'S SORRY FOR USING BEEF USA: Fast food behemoth, McDonalds have agreed to apologise publicly to Hindus, vegetarians and others for failing to disclose the use of animal products in their foods identified as vegetarian. The company will also donate $10 million to concerns espoused by these groups as part of a settlement in a classaction lawsuit initiated by Indian-American attorney Harish Bharti. However, McDonalds India clarified that they have never used beef, pork or animal extract in their vegetarian products. McDonalds will insert ads in newspapers apologising for the mistake. "We acknowledge that upon our switch to vegetable oil in the early 1990s for the purpose of reducing cholesterol mistakes were made in communicating to the public the ingredients in our French fries and hash browns." The ads will continue to say: "We regret we did not provide our customers with complete information, and we sincerely apologise for any hardship that this has had on Hindus, vegetarians and others." The lawsuit arose from an episode in April 2001 when some Indian-American vegetarians on the West Coast accused McDonalds of misleading customers by presenting their golden fries as vegetarian. Harish Bharti, who oversaw the effort, claimed, "We have forced a giant corporation to change their attitude and their way of thinking. I am proud of that." TOOTHPASTE AND PAANMASALA HARMFUL Jaipur, India: Dental surgeon Dr. D. K. Gupta, speaking to a large group of medical practitioners at Jaipur, India, stressed that the continued use of toothpaste and paanmasala was highly damaging to health, especially for children, due to the presence of fluorides in these products, which could lead to diseases like fluorosis. Basic raw materials used in the manufacture of toothpaste, such as calcium carbonate and chalk powder typically contain 800 to 1,000 p.p. of fluoride. Eminent dental specialist Dr. Sunil Jain, advised that mouth fresheners are equally harmful as they contain large amounts of fluorides and other undesirable constituents. SAFFRON SHOWERS ON CHINMAYA SAGARJI India: Chinmaya Sagarji Maharaj, a disciple of Acharya Vidhyasagarji, was showered with saffron for 27 minutes while he was giving his discourse at Bhatpara, India. It is said that similar showers occurred on the day of commencement of Chaturmas, and also at the end of his four-month-long stay there. ACHARYA TARUNSAGARJI HONOURED New Delhi, India: Madhya Pradesh State Government will make an exception to its policy when they honour Acharya Tarunsagarji as a state guest. India and its provincial governments follow secularism and normally no official favour is made to religious leaders. During his journey within the province, Acharyaji will enjoy all the privileges of a state guest, including security arrangements and any other facilities required to address a huge mass of people. It is estimated that a minimum of 25,000 to 30,000 people, both Jains and non-Jains, will attend his discourses every morning. This is the first time that such a status has been conferred to a Jain sage. June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 15 Jain Education Interational Forvete Fersonal Use Only Page #18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ STOP PRESS SWEETMEAT TO AVOID The above photo is a part of the opening ceremony of the new Navkar Mantra Pillar at Jamnagar, India. The project was inspired by Mr. Shashikant Mehta of Rajkot. GENIUS OF AHIMSA From Maneka Gandhi Many Indian sweets are decorated with a very thin edible silver foil - varakh. To make it, the intestines of cattle are pulled out, washed in the slaughterhouse, cut into small pieces and bound together like pages in a notebook. A silver block is placed in the middle of these bound intestines, then the whole thing is placed in a leather bag and sealed. Varakh makers then pound the bag with wooden sticks until the entire bag flattens out. The silver block then turns into silver foil which would be separated from the intestine pack and placed on paper. Intestines are used because they are strong and elastic. Definitely a sweet to avoid, even if you are not a diabetic! PARIS CONFERENCE ASHLAND, VIRGINIA, 21 JANUARY 2002 - "Boy genius Gregory Smith finished high school in two years with an A+ average. He was ten years old. A television crew from "60 Minutes" filmed his speech to the graduating class, and he lost a baby tooth while on stage," wrote the Washington Post. His IQ is 'off the chart'. According to parents Bob and Janet Smith, Greg began speaking simple words at three months old and full sentences quickly followed. He could recite memorised books before his first birthday and read on his own shortly after that. He solved arithmetic problems at 14 months and at two he was reading about dinosaurs and chatting knowledgeably about the Cretaceous Period. He observed that people had flat teeth like plant-eating dinosaurs and concluded that human beings must be herbivores not carnivores. He persuaded his family to become vegetarian. Greg, now 12, is a college senior at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. In addition to his vegetarianism, Greg has a rigid moral code: he walks out of a movie at the third curse word because he considers profanity verbal violence; when a film in class contains nudity or sex, he puts his hands over his eyes or leaves the room; when his family rents movies, Greg vetoes anything rated PG13 because he is only twelve. Since starting college, Greg has made the acquaintance of a handful of Nobel Peace Laureates. Because Greg had a previous speaking engagement in Denver, he had to decline an invitation from the Dalai Lama, but he hopes to have another chance. He has discussed current events with world leaders, lunched with Mikhail Gorbachev and Queen Noor, shaken hands in the Oval Office with President Clinton, and been blessed by tribal elders in a desolate African village. His simple appeal for non-violence and human rights for children has mushroomed into a philanthropic foundation called International Youth Advocates, with young representatives around the world speaking out on behalf of the world's innocents. Last year alone, Greg Smith travelled to six countries on four continents to lobby on behalf of children whose lives have been shattered by war, violence and poverty. He writes and delivers eloquent speeches and personally answers some of the thousand-plus emails and letters he receives each week. An international conference on animals in Indian scriptures and literature was held in Paris from 25-27 March 2002. The eminent Jain scholar, Professor Madame Colette Caillat spoke on the Jain perspective on animals, and Professor Nalini Balbir spoke on domestic animals. There were papers on the Buddhist perspective, animals in Indian art and architecture and pets. Dr. Osier spoke on the Jain perspective of harmony with animals. In a country where meat is a central diet, deeply entwined with the French food culture, it is fascinating that intellectuals are addressing these issues and showing that the whole attitude to food and animals is different in other cultures.! 16 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ QUOTES & QUIPS Family Values DAD GOES OUT TO WORK BUT MUM'S THE REAL PERFORMER. SHE JUGGLES. COOK MIKE TURNER COUNSELLOR CHAUFFEUR CAREER CLEANER COMMISSIONED BY JAIN SPIRIT C CARER QUOTES & QUIPS Nasty A teenage boy with spiked hair, nose ring and baggy clothes says to his friend, "I don't really like to dress like this but it keeps my parents from dragging me everywhere with them." Responsibility I have heard and realised that bondage and salvation are both within yourself. Acharangasutra Action Abiding by your commandment is preferable to worshipping you. Vitaragastava A Witness I am one, I am totally alone, I am devoid of all external attachments, I can expand or shrink to fill any physical body I occupy, I am immortal, ageless, I am eternal, I am pure consciousness, undisturbed by wavering thoughts - a mere witness. Shrimad Rajchandra Wisdom You cannot prolong your life, therefore be not careless; you are past help when old age approaches. Uttaradhyanasutra Karma The question as to when the union of the soul with karma occurred for the first time cannot arise, since this is a beginningless' relationship, like gold and stone. Pancadhyayi Enlightenment Perfect knowledge is attained on the destruction of deluding karmas...which obscure knowledge and perception...and which obstruct [faith). Tattvarthasutra Desire On gaining the desired object, one should not feel elated. On not receiving the desired object, one should not feel dejected. In case of obtaining anything in excess, one should not hoard it. One should abstain from acquisitiveness. Acharangasutra The Human Condition Just as knowledge, in spite of its being intangible, gets obliterated under the influence of wine, so the self, though originally intangible, gets its qualities obstructed under the influence of tangible karma particles. In its state of bondage the soul, though intangible, conceives itself to be tangible [identical with the body). Pancadhyayi Lord Mahavir Glory be to Lord Mahavir, in whose mirror of enlightenment are reflected vividly the terrestrial and the extra-terrestrial, and whose complexion resembles the interior of a blooming lotus and burnished gold. Jayadhavala Charity Charity - to be moved at the sight of the thirsty, the hungry and the miserable, to offer relief to them - is the spring of virtue Kundakunda, Pancastikaya Calories Count The force of arms cannot do what peace does. If you can gain your desired end with sugar, why use poison? Somadeva, Nitivakyamrita Devotion Lord! In praying to you I violate the restraint of tongue, in remembering you I violate the restraint of mind and in prostrating to you I violate the restraint of body. Be it as it may, I vow to ever pray to you, remember you and prostrate myself before you. Adipurana The Original Mind Delusion is a sort of demonic force, People's original mind is pure but it becomes perverted due to delusion and other karmas. Kundakunda Religion Non-injury is religion. Naladiyar June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 17 Jain Education Intemational Page #20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ FORTHCOMING EVENTS FORTHCOMING EVENTS 5TH YOUNG JAINS INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION: "TASTING THE MANGO" London, 23-25 August, followed by a four-day tour of England. This unique event, which draws young people from all over the world, should not be missed! Over 400 young people are expected and there is even a creche facility for 5-9 year olds! How's that for forward thinking! Contrary to popular belief, this is not an all serious event, there is great fun and plenty of opportunity to socialise. Registration fees are very reasonable (if you register early), and host family accommodation is provided for all foreign delegates who register in advance. For details / to register, www.youngjains.org.uk email : [email protected] MIKE TURNER BIENNIAL CONVENTION OF YOUNG | JAIN EDUCATION FOR THE DIGITAL JAINS OF AMERICA: GENERATION CONFERENCE: JAINA The Young Jains of America (YJA) and the youth wing of the | Education Committee is hosting a conference from 25-27 May Federation of Jain Associations in North America (JAINA) will 2002 at Los Angeles, USA to promote and enhance learning and hold their Biennial Convention at Sheraton Crossroads, teaching of Jain philosophy and religion while fostering unity Mahwah, New Jersey from 4-7 July 2002. This year's theme, amongst Jains. The conference will offer a platform for Walking the Path of Jainism, focuses on showing Jain youth the communication among Jain religious schoolteachers of various importance of Jainism in their daily lives. The purpose of the Jain centres, Jain scholars and authors, web site moderators and YJA convention is to help Jain youth explore Jain ideas, values, educationists. This will be a great opportunity to share some beliefs and culture through numerous workshops, panel effective teaching techniques and presentation styles to educate discussions, seminars and lectures. Through highly acclaimed Jain philosophy to the digital generation. speakers, lively discussions and interactive presentations, the For details www.jainbhavan.com youth will learn the joy of bhajans, realise the power of ahimsa, understand the importance of pooja and much more. The NEW JAIN PLAY: convention site offers total seclusion and gives the convention Bali - the Sacrifice by Girish Karnad, participants full access to all amenities of the hotel. Attendees starring the famous Indian film actor will enjoy a night of carnival booths designed to promote Nasseruddin Shah, is to be staged cultural awareness through a fun and enriching Mela night, the between 31 May and 15 June 2002 at Indian carnival, a traditional garba raas and a semi-formal Leicester Haymarket Theatre - Box dance. Office 0116 253 9797. It is a premiere As an added bonus, participants over the age of 21 may production with a star-studded cast participate in the Jain Networking Forum (UNF), a social and inspired by the Jain epic experience dedicated to helping young adults to meet their Yashastilaka. The story runs as future partner for life and build business contacts. follows: "In the heat of a dark Visit www.yja.org or contact Chintan Shah midnight, in a ruined temple, a song [email protected] & Ronak Shah [email protected], floats through the air. The voice co-chairs of YJA 2002. belongs to a Mahout - the elephant keeper - and it is so beautiful that it THE JAIN ADHYATMA ACADEMY OF draws the queen from her bed. The king feels her leave his side NORTH AMERICA AT EDISON, NEW and silently follows. What he finds in the temple makes his JERSEY, USA ORGANISES THEIR 2ND blood run cold. The impulse to do violence to resolve the ANNUAL JAANA SHIBIR (CAMP) FROM situation and assuage feelings of betrayal and anger collides 4-7 JULY 2002. head on with the belief that only a life of non-violence is the one Experience three days of total internal peace while learning worthy to be lived. This ancient myth shouts to us down eleven about Jainism. Lectures, panel discussions, bhakti, socials. centuries as we struggle with the dilemmas that face us now." For more details, email: [email protected] INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - SCIENCE IN JAINA SCRIPTURES Udaipur, India, November/December 2002 Papers are delegates are invited to this conference. Free boarding and lodging for all authors and guests. For details, please contact Pradhuman Zaveri, [email protected] by 30th September. 18 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ S JAIN SPIRIT BEHIND THE SCENES NORTH AMERICA Our subscriptions here continue to rise - thank you very much Dr. Tansukh Salgia deserves particular mention for his hard work in keeping all subscribers regularly informed and maintaining the database and accounts. Please give us your change of address if you move, or else..... We are actively looking for donors and subscribers, so help promote Jain Spirit in your local centre. Email: [email protected] SIMPLE TIPS ON MARKETING - Complete the subscription form for a friend and ask them to give you the money, and you can post it. Unfortunately, there is a lot of laziness about! Help us overcome it. . There are two subscription forms in each magazine - we know each of you can easily get two new subscribers for us. Please do this without delay, and if necessary, give them a one year gift - they will remember you for a whole year. In return, we will give you a special gift for every two new subscribers you bring. . Don't be ashamed of showing the magazine to anyone who visits - keep it on the coffee table and encourage visitors to flick through. From experience, they cannot put it down. Next step is subscription - get them to do it there and then! RECYCLE YOUR WEALTH AND RENEW YOUR CULTURE So far, we have raised large amounts from generous people from all over the world, with the primary funding coming from the UK. We need to urgently widen this support base and ensure Jain Spirit reaches libraries, schools and communities all over the world. This is a unique international project, and Jains from all over the world are invited to donate. We are waiting to hear from any donors wishing to preserve the memory of a loved one or encourage the awareness and understanding of Jainism worldwide. Please call our Chairman, Mr. Anant M. P. Shah, on +44(0) 20 7269 5520 or email [email protected] We also have unique products such as Jain music CD's which we can distribute worldwide to help you preserve the memory of a loved one. All you have to do is to write a cheque and we will do the rest, in the unique high quality and professionalism that is associated with Jain Spirit. PERTH, AUSTRALIA-AJAIN SPIRIT CITY Mr. Amu Vaghji Nangpar Shah has given one year gift subscriptions to all Jains living in Perth. He has received very positive feedback and many have already said that they will subscribe to the magazine once their subscription expires! It raises the enthusiasm and community spirit for everyone at a bargain price! Would you like to make your city a Jain Spirit city? All you need to do is send us the addresses of all Jains living in your city and we will send them a covering letter that it is a gift from you, eg. in memory of a loved one. We will then send them the magazine for the whole year (four issues) - you don't have to do anything. The recipients will be grateful to you. It is as simple as that, and we will give discounts on bulk deals. Do not wait for Jains to subscribe - give them a gift, and that will give them a platform for life! They will thank the donor for one whole year, when every new issue of the magazine arrives. Mr. Kiran Kochar has already done this for Jakarta, and Mr. Hasmukh Gardi, for Dubai. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Nakuru, Hong Kong, Antwerp, what are you waiting for? Please call our Chairman, Mr. Anant M. P. Shah, on... +44(0) 20 7269 5520 or email [email protected] or Editor, Dr. Atul Shah on +44-1206-500037 or email [email protected] KENYA The Young Jains in Nairobi have been promoting the magazine and encouraging everyone to subscribe. Unfortunately, due to previous free marketing, some people still think they will get it for free, but this is untrue. Tell them what they are missing! Mombasa, Nakuru, where are the new subscriptions? In Kampala, Uganda, Abhay and Rita continue to get us new subscriptions. Well Done! ADVERTISE AND PROMOTE YOUR SUCCESS Jain Spirit can take your precious business message and achievements to all over the world, and bring you new, trustworthy business contacts. For a fee of only PS1000 ($1500) per page (reduced pro-rata for smaller sizes), you can reach thousands without leaving your office. This is especially beneficial for tour operators and distributors of ethical products. LOOKING FOR NEW REPRESENTATIVES We are looking for representatives in Hong Kong, Toronto, Antwerp, Tel Aviv, New York, and many other parts of the Jain world. Do you know of someone who is hard working and can promote the magazine positively and effectively? If so, we would like to hear from you. Help us to help Jain culture advance in the new millennium INDIA Mr. Rajendra P. Jain (pictured above), a Director of the world famous Indological Publishers, Motilal Banarssidass, has taken on the mantle of India coordinator and marketeer for Jain Spirit. He is already working very hard to organise the printing of Jain Spirit in India and finding professional writers for the magazine. During his extensive travels within India, he has made many contacts for marketing and distributing the Mr. Rajendra P. Jain, magazine. The entire Board of Director, Motilal Banarsidass Motilal Banarsidass are very positive and supportive of Jain Spirit, including Mr. Narendra Prakash Jain, the head of the family. They are celebrating hundred years of the business in 2003. Mr. Lalit Shah continues as mailing coordinator. SINGAPORE Mayur Ghelani and his team are constantly promoting the magazine at local events. A complimentary copy of issue 9 was sent to 250 Jain families courtesy of the Singapore Jain Samaj. Keep it up! June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 19 Jain Education Interational Page #22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ FEATURES ENCOURAGE DREAMING Founder of four academic institutions in Bangalore, Chen Raj Jain explains how young people can be inspired to go beyond their personal HEN RAJ JAIN IS THE FOUNDER OF THE JAIN GROUP OF and one-third moral education in our curriculum. I foresee a Educational Institutions based in Bangalore. A school lot of competition and uncertainties in the future. We need to leaver at the age of 13, Mr. Jain is today one of India's equip the future generation with inner balance and courage. I leading educational innovators and has a bold vision to create a am trying to prepare the youth of tomorrow to face the new generation of talented young people. In 1990, the Sri challenges of life bravely and positively. Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain Educational and Cultural Trust was We have started various institutions at primary, formed to set up the Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, one undergraduate and diploma/postgraduate levels with courses of the most popular colleges in Bangalore today. They have which relate to the modern world but at the same time prepare since expanded into children's education with the Jain the students for the future. This millennium talks about speed, International Residential School and the Jain Vidyaniketan, a about knowledge, survival of the fittest and we incorporate free school for 2000 rural children. The Mahaveer Academy of modern ideas into our courses. The environment at our Technology and Sciences aims at creating and developing institutions infuses positive energy and enthusiasm for the professional managers, technocrats, entrepreneurs and future. We hope to have more community-based colleges for business leaders who would strive to improve the quality of basic education for everyone, with the aim of 100,000 students human life. Mr. Jain spoke to Jain in 15 years. There is a huge gap in Spirit about his mission: needs-based practical adult Gaining knowledge is like "We encourage students education, which Europe and growing a tree. Its value is seen in America have started but India is its fruitfulness. Every aspect of it, seriously lacking. We want to when carefully nurtured, fertilised provide vocational training at all and reared will assure us of its levels, not just educate the perpetual beauty and identity. Our boundaries." professionals or the elites. Our aim is to provide intellectual vision is to have a deemed nourishment and stimuli, and at the university in the next two or three same time train the tender mind to emotional stability and years. We would like to revive the Gurukula concept with a strength. Today the world has made huge technological modern outlook and provide holistic education. progress, but we have lost our inner happiness. Internal Modern education is generally in the form of structured progress and external qualities are both required together. Our syllabuses and modules. This is often very dry and alien. I moral values are disintegrating. The human being is strongly emphasise the personal contact with each student and an influenced by materialism and is living a temporary life understanding of their core interests and strengths. This is not without any sense of lasting values and ideals. My work with done in most modern educational institutions, where the children in the last ten years has taught me that they are our student is part of the assembly line of a factory which produces only hope for a better future. There is nothing wrong in standard products. To me, this is an insult to the creativity and making money, but humanity has to have values. These can potential of each soul. It contradicts the essence of Jain only be done in educational institutions where we can instill philosophy which states that every jiva is unique. We ideals into the actions and dreams of young people. We are emphasise in all our education the importance of making a sincere attempt in trying to balance the best of east communication and human relationships. We encourage and west. students to look for positive qualities in others. We observe our Living in this knowledge society', I feel that the youth students closely and give them challenges according to their today are 100 times more intelligent than the past generation. strengths. We avoid looking for weaknesses or criticising our We should really nurture them with confidence and self- students. All our teachers are instructed never to put anyone esteem, equipping them with internal values at the same time. down - there is a Swami Vivekananda or a Rabindranath To do this, we should have one-third theory, one-third practical Tagore or Albert Einstein in everybody. This is why in a short 20 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Encourage Dreaming Mr R. Chen Raj Jain listening to children at the Jain International Residential School, Bangalore, India time we have become one of the most well known institutes in the country. In my short experience, I have had many-many excellent examples of students who have surpassed their own personal boundaries and achieved unbelievable results in different creative or organisational endeavours. This gives them tremendous inner confidence which they can use when they leave the college to work for other organisations or start up on their own. I feel the job of the educator is to facilitate. We have 30-40 of our own graduates working for the Jain Group of Institutions and they have achieved tremendous results in a short time. We work on the self-motivation of each student, encouraging them to have clear intentions, even to dream and go beyond their personal boundaries. For example, one of our students who became a law graduate was asked to debate in front of 150 students. We organised the event, asked her to demonstrate her skills and persuaded her parents to encourage her to go further. This girl then got a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley and today, she is working in a senior legal position in Germany. In Jain philosophy everyone is potentially divine. We have found that teaching about values is actually very simple. The teachers have to set a good moral example and help create an appropriate environment where young minds can feel free, self-confident and creative. By giving importance to the students, listening to them and facilitating them, a lot can be achieved very simply and effectively. I feel young people have a lot of untapped energy and they need to be thrown into challenges to keep their mind from getting distracted by modern comforts and idle thinking or activities. One boy failed in all his classes, but I observed that he had good selling qualities, so I encouraged him to go into marketing. Today, he is the biggest dealer in cables in Bangalore with 16 franchises. I hardly spent 30 minutes with him and he was transformed. Encourage students to dream, to visualise and never show them limitations or boundaries. Unfortunately, many teachers and lecturers have very structured ways of thinking and teaching which does not inspire confidence in others. Students are a nuisance to them and teaching is a job rather than an opportunity to inspire young people. We have a very different philosophy here. Teaching is one of the most demanding careers one can choose. Yet it is also the most rewarding. Choosing to teach is choosing to make a difference to the lives of children Teaching is about conveying the love of learning and discovery, giving children the tools they can use throughout their lives to make their own discoveries. With this in mind, we have set up an International Academy for Creative Teaching (I ACT), where we train teachers to play a variety of roles in the classroom -educator, motivator, guide, counsellor, coach and disciplinarian. We prepare teachers to work as part of a team, combining their efforts with colleagues, superiors and parents to create the best possible learning environment for their students. I would like India to have once again universities like Nalanda and Takshashila, which were the oldest universities in the world. I feel that we have the capability to be world leaders in science, management and the arts as we have a huge resource in our culture and our history. We need to harness this resource, provide holistic education and with our strong sense of moral values and community spirit, we can easily become number one. Then our knowledge will be aimed at healing the planet, not destroying it. It will help raise the quality of all life, not just humanity. The professionals who graduate from here will become public servants of the highest order, enriching others before enriching themselves. I feel that although Western education and science is currently dominant, it is lacking in moral fibre: they are creating experts and elites who exploit others to enrich themselves. This needs to change dramatically if the world is to make genuine and sustainable progress. The unique formula for positive action lies in Jainism. For further information, visit: www.jaingroup.ac.in or call Jain Group of Institutions, Mr. Darshan Mutha, Bangalore, 080 661 5246/662 5246, Email: [email protected] June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 21 Page #24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ FEATURES ROADS TO JAINOLOGY Drawing from her rich experience of fieldwork in India, Professor Nalini Balbir invites people to pursue Jain scholarship HE JAIN TRADITION IS A PART OF THE INDIAN CULTURAL context where it was born and has evolved for more Indian society. Thus they always had to assess their own position within the surrounding environment. This has a lot of implications for their history and for the study of this history. Jainism cannot be studied in isolation from other Indian traditions. 22 In order to become a Jain scholar, one has to study several languages as a minimum. This is hard work and requires commitment and dedication. When you are a 'novice' in Jain studies and you discover the field, you are fascinated as you realise the vast and almost unique length of this tradition. This holds especially true when you come to Jain studies from linguistics or philology or after studying classical languages (Latin and Greek) and Sanskrit. You soon realise that Sanskrit is absolutely necessary, given the vast bulk of Jain texts written in this language, from commentaries to original literary compositions, etc. Nevertheless, Sanskrit is not enough, for there are Shvetambara Canonical scriptures and Digambara works, which are in different varieties of Prakrit (Ardhamagadhi, Maharashtri, Shauraseni). So you will need to learn Prakrit. Then you immediately find that modern Indian languages are also a must for different reasons: they serve as a help to understand the earlier texts which they explain or retell (with discrete changes); they are also fully important for themselves, since they give access to present day Jains in India, especially to the monks or nuns. Modern languages take us to the immense body of work the Jains have been writing for centuries as a means to understand their own traditions and to keep them alive. The painstaking work of Jain scholars from India has not been translated into English and is often difficult to access in the West, but it should not be neglected. Scholars such as the late Muni Punyavijaya, Pandit Sukhlalji, Pandit Dalsukh D. Malvania, Prof. H.C. Bhayani, A. Nahta and so many monks, Jain Spirit June August 2002 have conducted unique research armed with very little resources but simply their deep curiosity. In an ideal situation, you should be able to have at least a working knowledge of Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada and even Tamil. In practice, this is seldom possible - everybody cannot be Padmanabh S. Jaini or A. N. Upadhye -, so the majority of scholars would select the languages which are more directly useful depending on whether they concentrate more on Jains in Western India or Jains in the South, even though any restriction in this field is never satisfactory. Of course, a would-be Jainologist should try to have some access to other European languages than English, especially German, Italian and French. If you happen to discover the richness of Jainology through ethnology or anthropology, the study of contemporary Jains will be your main area. You will have mastered the relevant methodology, you will visit the communities, take part in ceremonies, etc. However, I would like to stress the following point: it is absolutely misleading to separate the various ways of approach, precisely because there is no interruption in the tradition. You can study modern religious hymns or legends in their own right and decide to approach Jain religiosity from the angle of today's practice and understanding, but how can you consider them in isolation from the past when the basic material is rooted in such a long tradition? How can you decide that only today's practice is significant and ignore the numerous theological and sectarian debates which have given birth to so many books written in the last centuries? The politically correct tendency to draw a line between hard philology, exemplified by Western scholars of the 19th century who would have been consciously or unconsciously motivated by their European ideas and prejudices, and the 20th-century anthropologists, who would be the ones who really understand their object of study without bias, is rather misleading and implies a regrettably narrow understanding of Page #25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ the concept of 'field-work'. Collecting manuscripts and searching for them when they are buried in temple-libraries, for which there is no proper list or catalogue, is also a form of field-work involving a lot of fun and thrill: from an indication found in some footnote, you become convinced that you have to find the document and should be able to do so. As an investigator, you then have to locate and convince the right person who will guide you, and there are good chances that the informer will turn into a friend and help you discover more than you had ever imagined or expected. Then having to read your text sitting in the temple itself, where devotees come to perform their rituals, is an experience in itself. Even if you know that you are not the first person to do so, for in the past several British, German and Italian scholars also had to go through the desert of Rajasthan and the temples of Gujarat for similar purposes, you feel like an adventurer - at a small scale. A similar excitement arises when, after a few hours' drive in the company of Jain friends, you reach a peaceful upashray located at the top of a temple in a noisy street and you start listening to the teachings of a learned Jain monk or discuss with him; the jolly atmosphere, the open laughs which often burst forth are part of the conversation, the curiosity of the onlookers and the friendly invitations that are often extended to you are great fun. Such observations may be considered as naive romanticism, but such experiences are part of working with Jains. The network formed by Jains at various levels of community life make these experiences different from what could be said for other fields of Indian studies. Acquaintance with one scholar or one family can open many doors for you and can lead to fantastic and unexpected discoveries. Jains today are very conscious of the value of their tradition and are extremely willing to import their own knowledge, to make Jainism known outside their own circles. Most Jains respect and try their best to help scholars who have been trained in the reading of Jain texts. Whatever aspect of the Jain tradition you will like to investigate, you will soon be aware of the importance of books and manuscripts. They have a place in the houses, where it is not rare for the families to keep original manuscripts as a treasure. They have a place in festivals - just think of Paryushan where copies of the Kalpasutra are worshipped and taken around -, and they have a place in the daily vyakhyans of Shvetambar Acharya Vijay Shilacandrasuri is a respected scholar monks, who often have a book in front of them even if their talk diverges from it. It is a well-known fact that scriptures count among the 'seven fields' in which your wealth can be sown. The doctrinal frame and the economic wealth of several Jain groups explain the richness of Jain libraries and the innumerable quantity of manuscripts, the writing of which has been sponsored by lay people. The object as such is almost as important as the contents: the Jain manuscripts are renowned within the Indian tradition for their generally good quality, carefulness and lavishness of their script and their pictorial style. One who would dive into such material would also immediately be struck by the colophons and scribal remarks found at the end of many of them. The authors, mostly monks, have often taken care to assess their place within the tradition to which they belong through detailed spiritual genealogies; Roads To Jainology areas. the scribes often name their sponsors or the beneficiaries of their work. 'Dry' as these portions may seem to be, they build a rich source of information for regional and familial history, a field of study which has developed considerably in recent years when applied to other cultural A pioneering book such as V.P. Johrapurkar's Bhattaraka Sampradaya: A History of the Bhattaraka Pithas especially of Western India, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (Sholapur, 1958) based on many unpublished manuscripts has paved the way towards such investigations, but has unfortunately remained underestimated. The same would be true about the vast epigraphical material largely available in published form, but unfortunately still relatively unused. In the last 25 years, Western writing on the Jains and their tradition has increased rather considerably and Jainism is regularly featured in encyclopedias of religion. Both academic and educational circles have realised that this is a tradition which has much to offer, especially in connection with issues at stake in today's world. I hope more young people are encouraged to explore the various facets of Jain history, scriptures, art, architecture, thought and practices focussing both on the past and on the present. O BAD BOY Molempi Nailini Balbir is a Professor at the University of Paris. She is actively involved in the cataloguing of Jain manuscripts at the British Library in London. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 23 Page #26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ OWWW.DINODIA.COM FEATURES 24 USA The prospect of assimilation in a foreign land can be daunting, but Jain values can help one to adapt successfully 7620 HERE ARE TWO CONCERNS FOR THE JAIN COMMUNITY IN America I wish to address in this essay. The first is population of 272 million, preserve the Jain tradition in an environment which is so far removed from the one that gave it its original shape? The second is the question of growth. How do we contribute to the life of our new home so that America is a better place for our having come to its shores? The underlying theme for these concerns is: home away from home. What is home? Home is a very special place. If we are away for some length of time we develop homesickness. Yet home is more than a place: it is a state of mind. It is the source of our karmic existence and the cradle of our values. But the past is never past; it exists in the present form of memories and habits. We have deep roots that connect us to our past. You can immigrate but you cannot uproot. You can take a Gujarati out of Gujarat but you cannot take Gujarat out of a Gujarati. This does not mean that we are justified in attempting to replicate life of the old country in our new home. What was good in Jain Spirit June-August 2002 For Private HOME AWAY FROM HOME Dods obodnimentul Cromwell Crawford 01 Personal Use Only ban ad d bel bna Bagzs pAr bas Jonbe explores how Jains can be good citizens in the West lod Bombay is not necessarily good in Boston. We must seek to become fully integrated into American society. But how? This brings up the question of survival: how do we co-opt the new without compromising the old? It is fine to blend into American culture; it is folly to bend what is distinctively Jain. Integration, not homogenisation is what we should aim for.. There are some good news and bad news. The bad news is that Jains have had to struggle to survive throughout their long history due to the smallness of their numbers. Even now they are less than one percent of India s population. Unlike Christians and Muslims, Jains have not been interested in. augmenting their numbers by conversion. The good news is that Jains are the quintessential survivors in history. How did the Jains survive when other sramanic movements perished following the demise of their founders? By the 14th century Buddhism vanished from its Indian homeland, due to the onslaught of the Muslim invaders and its absorption into Hinduism, as Lord Buddha was made into an avatar of Vishnu. Survival must be viewed as a total package, involving political, social and religious dimensions. On the political front we must Page #27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Home Away From Home of the Civil Rights Movement. Though a Christian Minister, he baptised this Gandhian Movement. By this act of linking ahimsa with protest and politics, Rev. Martin Luther King has forever linked Jain ideals with American freedom. When he said 'we shall overcome', he was speaking like a Jina. We are not aliens or strangers in this land, we are not immigrants - on the sacred soil of American freedom Jains are in their rightful home away from home. destroy the stereotype that Jainism promotes a culture that shuns politics and is a world-denying religion. This does not reflect historic reality. The word politics is derived from the Latin word for city and the Jains have generally been citydwellers. They have been accustomed to living in a political mix. Professor Jaini states: "A cardinal feature of the sramana movements which arose in India in around 550 B.C. was the emphasis upon the superiority of the princely class (kshatriya), both in a spiritual context or a secular one. Hence these movements tended to find common cause with the local kings, who were themselves engaged in constant fight against claims to supremacy of the brahman class." In practical ways, the relationship between the Jain communities and the royals was reciprocal - a quid pro quo. Indian kings were duty-bound to support all religions, but their special support for any one religion enhanced its prestige and popularity immensely. Village taxes were handed over to the mendicant community. The kings built temples, erected statues and sponsored literary and artistic projects. Jains were appointed to serve as ministers in government, and the people had easier access to the courts. Most beneficial of all, the royal patronage afforded the Jain community with stability. Without having to migrate to greener pastures, they dug in and prospered. For their part, the kshatriyas benefited most by the support of the Jain community which, though small in numbers, was quite influential The overarching inspiration for the Jain-kshatriya connection was the fact that Lord Mahavir himself was of royal lineage. Some of his larger activities were held in the capital of Magadha, whose king, Srenika, was sympathetic to the Jain community and he himself converted to the faith. Similarly, Jains survived and prospered with the support of the Nanda dynasty that was in power till the 4th century BC and was succeeded by the patronage of Chandragupta Maurya, a disciple of Bhadrabahu. It is remarkable to note the role of the monk as 'king-maker' in this engagement of Jainism and politics. From the earliest times the Jain communities have been keenly aware of political engagement as a means of survival. They have not chosen to live in cultural ghettos as marginalised minorities, but have migrated to urban centres where the action is. They have become involved and, as a result, the influence of Jainism upon the life of India has always exceeded its numbers. The most monumental connection between Jain ideals and politics was through their amalgamation in the 'Quit India movement of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji took ahimsa out of the temples and on to the streets. The Jain scriptures (Naladiyar) say: "Non-injury is religion. It is not a part of religion, an addendum, a piece of pious embroidery - it is religion." Meanwhile in America, Martin Luther King studied Gandhi's non-violent strategy and made ahimsa the hallmark The lessons of history say to the Jains of America: You must not privatise your faith, holding that such evils as racism are 'political' and not religious' issues. Their discussion will only divide the community. You must not be escapists by avoiding political responsibility. You are not called upon to form a political party but to become committed to work within the multi-party system in this country. You must not support particular candidates or parties that come and go, but uphold principles by which all people are held accountable, be they Republicans or Democrats. You must be pro-life and pro-family, but it should stop short of being identified with specific lobbyists. You must stand for democracy, not bureaucracy; for justice and not dependency; for participation and not power; for substance and not style or showmanship. * This type of political engagement gloriously came to pass on 22 May 2001. On that day Jains made history when, on behalf of the Jain Association of North America, Gurudev Chitrabhanuji offered a prayer in the House of Representatives in celebration of the 2600th Birth Anniversary of Lord Mahavir. Thanks to the initiatives of Dr Sushil Jain and Dr Manoj Dharamsi, Congressman Frank Pallone organised the event. Chitrabhanuji's prayer ended with, "May all beings be interested in one another's well-being. May all faults be eliminated. May people be happy everywhere. Om Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!" Prayer in Jainism is essentially a sermon to ourselves. I therefore call upon the Jains of America to take this initiative again and again until this prayer is repeated in all of the State assemblies to which you belong back home, and most importantly, take a vow that some day soon this prayer will be uttered in the hallowed halls of the U.S. Senate. Cromwell Crawford is a Professor at the University of Hawaii and a member of the advisory board of Jain Spirit. | June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 25 Jain Education Interational Page #28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ LIFESTYLE H LEAVE A LIGHT FOOTPRINT Rose Skelton demonstrates how travel need not compromise your values Rose Skelton travelling lightly T HE LONG-AWAITED HOLIDAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED. You dig out your bags, dust them off and begin envisioning your relaxing break abroad. Suddenly you start to think about the place you are going to. How will your visit affect the people who live in this place? Is it possible to travel and benefit others at the same time? Whether it be a weeklong package, a gap year, a pilgrimage or a business trip, it is possible to enjoy your travels and at the same time benefit the people and the country you are visiting. By keeping the principles of Jainism in mind, travel can be a great way to share and teach the knowledge of ahimsa, honesty, contentment and simple living. Firstly, it is important to think about where your money is going when you book your holiday. If you are travelling independently, seek out locally owned guesthouses and use local guides and tour companies. Travelling on a package holiday, choose wisely it is possible to find interesting, enjoyable and culturally sensitive package holidays where your money goes to benefit the local community. If you are staying in a large hotel, bear in mind that all too frequently these places are foreign-owned, the local staff may be poorly paid and the land may have been taken unfairly. Live simply; luxury may lead to excess and unfair exploitation. Travelling on local transport can be fun and informative, as 26 Jain Spirit June - August 2002 it nogen well as supportive of the country's infrastructure. Sometimes beyou meet the most interesting people on trains and buses and it can give you a real sense of how people live. If you are hiring a bedriver for the day to guide you around a place, choose a local guide and make an effort to get to know him or her. One of my ely outstanding memories of Sri Lanka was spending the day with Ja guide who initially showed me around a temple. Afterwards, he took me around the city on his friend's tuc-tuc showing me his favourite places and then invited me to his mother's house for tea and some food. It was an unexpected display of generosity and also the best city tour I have ever had. When it comes to shopping for gifts to take home, try to be fair and think about where you shop; seek out shops run by organisations formed in support of local craftspeople or visit the local market. Haggle, if appropriate, with a smile but always pay a fair price. Even if you are on a budget, paying a little more, sometimes only a few pence, may mean a big difference to a family who has very little. 08 One of my favourite travel activities is exploring local food, eating and shopping in as many diverse environments as I can. I will never forget the joy of eating a vegan meal at a Hare Krishna restaurant in Australia, following it up with a moonlit movie in the adjacent open-air cinema. Food is a wonderful way of exploring a place, and leaving the hotel in search of something a little different is one of the best ways of doing this. Don't be afraid of explaining your food requirements to observe your own eating patterns, but bear in mind that what seems sensible to you may seem strange to others. Most people will understand and respect vegetarianism and will go out of their way to help you. Explain patiently and your needs will be respected. Where this is not possible (many countries rely on meat and fish for food) carry dried food with you, like seaweed and fruit, which is high in vitamin content and can be easily rehydrated. One of the many reasons people travel is to experience the rich natural environments of other countries. When we are at home we may recognise how our actions effect our environment and we may act upon this by recycling, reusing plastic bags and by minimising the use of our domestic cleaning product. We are the privileged ones: we have access Page #29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ to rubbish collection and recycling services and, most importantly, we have the education. Many people have not had these advantages and so it falls upon us, travellers to these often delicate environments, to set good examples and to act with the same care, if not more, than if we were at home. After all, without the beautiful beaches, parks and forests of our holiday destinations, travel would be a very empty experience indeed. Water systems are fragile and in many places clean piped water is a luxury. When travelling, especially in hot countries, don't waste water in the way that we might unknowingly do at home, like leaving the tap running when brushing your teeth. We all do it! Try to minimise the amount of washing; many hotels are decked out to the standards that you would expect at home but this doesn't mean that the local environment can sustain them in the same way. Have a look around and see how the locals get their water; hotels have been known to take their water from nearby villages so that people, often children, have to walk a long way to pump water from a well. Seek out places that fit in with the local environment. When it comes to disposing of rubbish, it is important to set a good example. If you are visiting outdoor sites, such as waterfalls or national parks, take a piece of rubbish home with you; other people will get the message and follow your example. In Cambodia I visited a beautiful river, a favourite weekend picnic spot of the locals that also held enormous religious significance. How strangely they looked at me when I started to gather a small pile of rubbish and set fire to it, but how pleased I was when some teenagers jumped up to help me. I am usually not in favour of starting fires in public, but neither am I of dirtying a beautiful place with rubbish, so be cautious. When you are involved in outdoor activities, stick to the footpaths, keep off the coral and keep your car on the road. Many places leave the opportunity open for off-road travel or hiking, but this is usually not because it is deemed acceptable are but because the tourist infrastructure isn't in place. Never buy products made from endangered species (like coral) and report the illegal exploitation of wildlife to the local authorities. However, also be aware that practices are different in other cultures; animals that we regard as domestic are often a vital source of food in many countries and we must respect this. It can be hard to see the poor treatment of animals so use your initiative, but be open-minded. Neerav Dhanani (top) with friends building a classroom in the Rio Muchachu Valley on the coast of Ecuador during his gap year. Many young people today go for adventure holidays which also involve community service to the local people Leave A Light Footprint of The best way contributing to the development of a culture and learning from it ourselves is to leave the guidebook in the hotel or guesthouse and go out and meet local people. They will quite often want to know about your culture as much as you are interested in theirs. However, tread sensitively and be aware of how your actions can offend others. Attend local festivals, religious occasions or public events, if appropriate, and talk to people about your own. But be aware of photography: most people will be willing to be photographed if you ask them politely but you should never photograph something if you are not given permission. Sacred sites, religious places, traditional rituals and particular people may someone or be more than offended, sometimes even harmed, by photography. It was painful watching tourists climbing Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in Australia when the Aboriginal people, for whom the rock held special sacred powers, specifically asked people not to. Walking around the base of the rock was a lot of fun and we had the whole fourteen kilometres to ourselves (I would advise people to carry more water than they think they need!). We often have a lot more to give than money, so share your food and consider offering your talents and skills to help the local people. An hour spent teaching a person a few words of your language or how to draw a picture will be rewarding and fun for you, and means the chance for a little varied education for them. You will also learn something too. You could also carry with you small gifts like pencils, tennis balls or ribbons; a new ball for a child might mean that a whole village can take part in a cricket game. Even though this all sounds like hard work, with some thought and a little practice travelling to benefit others will soon become second nature. Rose Skelton is a freelance travel writer who lives in London. Important Weblinks www.lonelyplanet.com. www.world-tourism.org www.vso.org.uk www.tourismconcern.org.uk June-August 2002. Jain Spirit 27 Page #30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ LIFESTYLE ACCEPTANCE amloodsbing IS THE KEY thos tuo 28 dis wond of E WERE BOTH BORN IN LONDON IN the 1960s, into a moderate Jain family that was never deeply religious but had strong beliefs on life, love, religion and friendship. W Over time, as a family, we also developed our thinking of death. We knew that life was short and time was precious. We also believed that some day, way into the future when we had moved on to the next life, we would all be together again. It was this thinking that was to help us through the most difficult years of our lives in the 1990s. As a small family of four we had spent all our holidays together and shared happy memories. We had lived in the same house for many years and dealt with most day-to-| day matters in an open way. We loved each other as much as a family could and we had huge mutual respect - emotionally, physically and mentally. We very rarely fought and generally our parents came up with the right solutions to our questions. They used the example of their love for each other to show us how to deal with life and how to value and maximise our time. We were aware of illness and the frailties of the human body and we had experienced the death of two grandparents, but both of whom were overseas. Around 1993, our mother, who was only 53 years old, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a condition we knew little about and we had not been close to anyone who had had this disease. Our uncle (who is a doctor) told us what it meant and what could happen next, but no one really knew. We had to understand the reality of a set of options and probabilities, Rohin and Raoul Shah publicly share their experience of their mother's death, ve demonstrating the power of acceptance as opposed to fear or denial Jain Spirit June-August 2002 theories and outcomes. Death was not on our mind but the possibility of death had now been raised to our consciousness. Survival rates were not good but new medicines were being discovered and old treatments were becoming more successful. The chances of success were better than each previous year. We looked forward to each day with an air of hope. The importance of cancer research and support charities, and our relatively small donations over the years became hugely relevant. The four of us started a long and untested journey, bonded by our love and respect and supported by our friends, family and the specialist doctors and nurses who looked after Mum. It was made up of intense feelings of hope, guilt, sadness, joy, helplessness and unity (sometimes all jumbled together). We experienced emotional highs and lows, the odd day of utter despair and many magical moments of indescribable happiness. Some of the emotions were new but we learned to cope in our own ways. The key focus became our precious time together and how we could maximise it. We spent every possible moment sharing our time and we gave and took energy and strength from each other. Each hour became our life and our life together became richer each day. The importance of time was redefined day by day. The power of love gave nollsvant iddin of sofiay ady over allet to lob molto olma bong Images from the family album Page #31 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Acceptance Is The Key Death Is Nothing At Al Henry Scott Holland Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. us hope because we knew all would be well in the end. Mum celebrated 60 years, the Millennium came and we both found life partners. Dad spent time with us all and kept us focused and positive. He set standards and examples that we followed. His determination not to give up and Mum's will to survive created such a strong force that they were indestructible. Everything was achieved, regrets were forgotten and when it happened, we were ready. We decided not to ask why it had to happen to Mum at such a young age but to focus on the positive aspects of our lives together, to remember how rich our memories were and to acknowledge the good she had brought to the world. We concluded that we were willing to tolerate no more suffering. God had the answers and He also made it possible for the soul to live beyond the limited time a body was given. Mum's soul was liberated and her body was returned to the earth. She was free again. One day, we will all be free and our souls will be together again. Death is nothing at all. Mum was a celebration of life. Her life was rich in experiences and full of positivity. Her smile will never be forgotten. Mum's support for everyone and everything was genuine and whole-hearted. Charitable, artistic, and a great socialiser, Mum was a tireless support to all who knew her. She was a complete inspiration. For over 40 years her partnership with Dad was a great lesson in togetherness, sharing and true love. Their bond will never be broken. Dad will always be comforted by the thought that Mum left in peace and maximised her time to the last minute. Her strength and bravery never tired. Her spirit never gave up. For many of us, her 60th birthday celebration was a true indication of her courage and strength of mind. She never lost her battle - she chose to go to a new place, peacefully. She taught us the importance of value and the benefit of being surrounded by wonderful people. We are all very fortunate to have each other and the knowledge that we are never alone. Mum will never be alone. She is as close to us today, as she has always been. Today her spirit is free. The experience taught us some of the everlasting values of life - unity, positive thinking, fearlessness, selflessness and contentment. We needed to show her that we were in this together but not suffering for her. We offered her support and showed her our ability to be ourselves so she could benefit from seeing her closest family as they really are. This meant a lot to us. It would be selfish to wish Mum had lived longer when clearly her time had come to move on. She was suffering from a terrible disease that she did not deserve to have to experience it any further. Her new place is better and more fulfilling. We are satisfied that she's in peace and she's happy to know we're all free of something that we could never control. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same that it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. Usha Shah passed away on 30 June 2000. Raju, Rohin and Raoul will be with her again, one day. All is well. June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 29 Page #32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ART & LITERATURE POETRY IN STONE Ratilal Desai and Mahesh Dave explain the history and artistry of Ranakpur temple, one of the rare wonders of the world GERARD Clor, PARIS An overview of Ranakpur Temple TN THE HEART OF THE REMOTE AND ENCHANTING VALLEY OF the Arvallis, skirting the rivulet Maghai and enveloped Lin the solitude of the surrounding forest, stands in solemn grandeur the Chaturmukha Jain Temple of Rishabhnath. Placed on a lofty plinth, the three-storey marble edifice, to which the genius of the artist has imparted exquisite artistic grace and dignity, is a poem in stone. The surrounding hills are dwarfed by its imposing bearing and appear absorbed in mute meditation, as if spellbound. To behold this holy shrine in its spectacularly sublime setting is to experience an instant uplifting of the soul. This temple is the realisation of the vision and endeavours of four great and devout seekers. They were: Acharya Somasundarsuriji, Dharanashah, the Minister to 30 Jain Spirit * June - August 2002 Page #33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Poetry In Stone remotely capture the Minister's dream-image. At last an easy-going sculptor named Depaka from Mundara presented a plan, which simply thrilled the heart of Dharanashah. He was profoundly impressed. Depaka was a carefree type of an artist and would prefer poverty to servility. He set very high value on his art. He was deeply touched by the transparent personality and devoutness of Dharanashah. He promised to create a temple which would give concrete shape to the Minister's dream. And thus a rare confluence of art and devotion was affected by the two visionaries Dharanashah approached Rana Kumbha with the request to give some land for the construction of the temple. The king not only gave the land but also advised Dharanashah to build a township near the site. The site of the old village Madgi in the valley of Mount Madri was selected for the purpose. The construction of the temple and the township began simultaneously. The town was named Ranpur after the name of King Kumbha Rana. Ranpur is popularly known as Ranakpur. Dharanashah, considering his advancing old age and Mr Shrenik Kasturbhai, a trustee of the Anandji Kalyanji Trust failing health, decided to install the idol of the principal which maintains the temple. His father started the original deity without much loss of time. In the year 1443, after the renovation in 1933 completion of the temple, the idols were ceremoniously installed by Acharya Somasundarsuriji. At last, hard work Kumbha Rana, Kumbha Rana himself and, above all, Depa and devotion of some 50 years brought the Minister's dream or Depaka, the architect who made the realisation of the down to earth in the form of a magnificent temple, an image dream possible. of the Viman of the gods. One cannot but feel awe and Acharya Somasundarsuriji was a magnetic personality reverence for the ingenuity and craftsmanship of this gifted who lived in the fifteenth century of artist. According to one legend, about Vikram Era. Shreshthi Dharanashah ninety-nine lakhs of rupees were belonged to the village Nadia near "The architect, spent on the construction of the Ranakpur. He had descended from the temple. It is believed that the master illustrious Porwal clan. Dharanashah builder Depaka had put the devotion came into contact with Acharya of his patron Sheth Dharanashah to Somasundarsuriji who infused a strong the test by making him offer seven spiritual urge in his heart. At the age of precious metals, pearls, rich stones, thirty-two when he visited musk and other fragrant substances Shatrunjaya, the foremost among all a very high value on his while laying the foundation. the places of Jain pilgrimage, In spite of the complexity, the Dharanashah took the austere vow of vast expense and the loftiness of the lifelong celibacy. Aided by his sharp temple, the architectural balance and intellect, keen administrative power symmetry are not the least affected. and an innate capacity to lead and govern, he had risen to The artistic sculptures, which lie scattered like precious the position of a Porwal Kumbha Rana. One blessed jewels, the myriad ornate festoons (toranas) with minute moment Dharanashah felt the spontaneous urge to build a and delicate carvings, the innumerable elegant and lofty temple of Lord Rishabhnath which, he resolved, should be pillars and a large number of spires (shikharas) which make without parallel in beauty. Legend tells us that one night in a unique pattern on the face of the sky - all these works of his dream Dharanashah had a vision of Nalinigulma Viman, spiritual art become alive and make the beholder oblivious which is considered to be the most beautiful among the of all else but a feeling of ecstasy, as if touched by the celestial planes. Dharanashah decided that the temple sublimity of Divine Bliss. should resemble this heavenly plane (viman). The temple has four artistic entrances. In the main He invited many renowned artists and sculptors. They chamber (gabhara) of the temple there are four 72-inch-tall submitted their plans and designs, but none could even images which have been installed facing the four different Depaka was a carefree type of an artist who set art." June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 31 Jain Education Intemational Page #34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ART & LITERATURE directions. In the sanctuaries on the second and third storeys there are four identical Jain images enshrined. It is because of these four images installed together in this temple, that it is popularly known as Chaturmukh Jain Temple. In addition to Chaturmukh Prasad this temple is also known as Dharan Vihar, Trailokya Deepak Prasad or Tribhuvan Vihar. Dharan Vihar is a suitable name because it was built by Shreeshthi Dharanashah. It stands like a luminous light spreading radiance in all three spheres (lokas) so it could be aptly called Trailokya Deepak Prasad or Tribhuvan Vihar. All these various names speak of its great glory. Seventy-six smaller domedshrines, four assembly halls eyes glued to them. One feels as if the very core of the stone has not been left untouched by the artist's chisel. The radiant images of the goddesses in the dome hold the beholders spellbound, their hearts athrill with expectancy. Judging from Meghanada-mandapa alone, one cannot but feel that the creator must have been much more than a great artist - indeed a weaver of dreams. Looking at the image of the Lord from the Meghanadamandapa makes one realise how insignificant and imperfect one really is before his infinite Creator and inspires one to rise above false pride and ego and to become aware of the true place in the Divine scheme of things. While entering through the Meghanadamandapa, on the left hand side pillar one sees the carved WWW.DINODIA.COM images of Dharanashah and Depaka (rangamandapas), facing the Lord. They four principal shrines too seem to remind man of (mahadhar prasads) situated in his humble position before God. the four directions and 84 big How could one not bow down in and small subsidiary shrines A fish eye view of the unique pillars in the temple reverence before these two great (devakulikas) stand embellishing souls - the Minister for his artistic the temple, soliciting and inspiring man to strive for devotion and the artist for his devotional art? emancipation from cycles of 84 lakhs of birth and death, The domes and ceilings of this temple are replete with and attain eternal salvation. innumerable carvings depicting famous incidents from the The four ornate Meghanada-mandapas are unique in past. The artists have given them life and movement with their sculptural beauty. The forty-feet-high pillars bedecked the magic touch of their chisels. While trying to with delicate carvings, the artistic toranas suspended like comprehend their mute language, the beholder becomes ornaments studded with precious stones and the magnificent oblivious of time and space, marvelling at the dome with its delicately carved pendant simply keep one's workmanship. The stone-slabs depicting a cobra with 32 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ thousand hoods (Sahasrafana), Parshvanath and Sahasrakuta | world. are equally impressive. The most outstanding feature of this temple is its infinite number of pillars. It can be called a treasure house of pillars or a city of pillars. In whichever direction one might turn the eyes meet pillars and pillars - big, small, broad, narrow, ornate or plain. The ingenious designer has arranged them in such a manner that none of them obstruct the view of the pilgrim wishing to have a glimpse (darshana) of God. From any corner of the temple one can easily view the Lord's image. These innumerable pillars have given rise to the popular belief that there are about 1444 pillars in the temple. In the north of this temple, there is a Rayan tree (mimusops laxandra) and the foot-prints of Bhagvan Rishabhnath on a slab of marble. They remind us of the life and preaching of Bhagvan Rishabhnath, and the foremost among the places of Jain pilgrimage, Shatrunjaya. On one hand the temple has been made artistic with its two upper storeys, on the other the designer has shown foresight in constructing some nine cellars in which the sacred images could be safely preserved in the event of a crisis. It is believed that there are many Jain images in these cellars. These cellars must be an additional strength and support to the entire structure and must have sustained it against the onslaught of time and the elements. The eroding sweep of time and nature, the wanton and mindless destruction by foreign invaders did much damage to this holy shrine. For a long time it wore a deserted look as pilgrims didn't find it safe to go to this secluded place infested with wild animals and dacoits. Fortunately, in 1897 the whole congregation (Sadri) handed over the administration of this shrine to the Sheth Anandji Kalyanji Trust (Pedhi). Soon after taking charge over the Pedhi addressed itself to the primary task of providing amenities to pilgrims and safety from the danger of wild animals. The authorities then launched an ambitious programme of renovating the temple. The renovation, which had begun in 1933, continued for eleven years and was accomplished in 1944. The artists who set chisel to stone have lent such a delicate grace to this old structure that world-renowned architects and sculptors have lavishly praised it as one of the wonders of the Poetry In Stone This renovated shrine has once again attained its unique fame in the world of art and religion. Every year thousands of art-lovers and spiritual seekers from all over the world come to this idyllic place. They return amply rewarded. To meet the ever-increasing number of tourists, the Pedhi has constructed many new inns (dharmashalas). Formerly there was just one old inn for the pilgrims. Now there are three new inns, which provide all the modern amenities and comforts. The quintessence of this masterpiece is to be discerned in the fact that it was conceived as an image of the celestial Viman Nalinigulma. The materialisation of the image acquired an aura that makes the beholder feel transported to a dream-world, where he experiences the rare and divine magnificence of the heavenly Viman. If the sublimation of the mind and the experience of the bliss of the subtler and higher states of the consciousness is the purpose of art, the spirit of Art has undoubtedly been fulfilled in the Chaturmukha Temple. Woman worshipping inside the temple 104 June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 33 Page #36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ART & LITERATURE GIRLS CAN'T STUDY? Mira Kamdar continues her journey into her past, discussing the attitude to women and how disappointing this was for Motiba The education of women is a modern development. It was not encouraged even fifty years ago the Khara family, according to one of Motiba's surviving cousins, was that no female member of the family should be seen outside the house after the age of twelve. At age twelve, the girls were made to drop out of school and come inside the house for good. They entered into purda - the word simply means 'curtain' - a state of absolute invisibility to anyone outside the immediate family circle. If they needed anything, it was delivered to the house. Jewellers came to the house. Fabric merchants came to the house. Tailors came to the house. All manner of vendors came to the house. The practice of purda was widespread in the Muslim community, but it was something the Kharas and other prosperous Jain and Hindu families, adopted from the ruling Rajputs, feudal princes who were fanatical about the purity of their women. Keeping the women locked up was a powerful statement of superior social class. Only women of inferior social classes were free to move about in the world. None of the women in my family were happy about being yanked out of school and locked up in the house at the age of twelve. For Motiba, this heartbreaking moment came even earlier, at the age of nine, following the premature death of her mother. She often told me and other of her grandchildren how much she lamented giving up her studies in the fourth grade; how, though she was intelligent, she couldn't become educated; and how important it was for us to achieve that which was forbidden to her. She never got over this trauma. Neither did her sister-in-law. Motiba's future husband was bright enough to win a full scholarship for his studies at the new English-medium school established in the Kathiawari town of Jetpur by the local Kathi ruler. His younger sister, Jasi, my Jasiphaiba, or TOTIBA'S EARLY YEARS IN GOKHLANA WERE TYPICAL of any little girl's in those days in rural Kathiawar. Childhood was, and in many cases still is, the freest time in an Indian woman's life. She does not yet require the strict shelter and control demanded of nubile women. In Hindu and Jain society of Motiba's era, girls were not considered to be real members of the family. They were merely 'on loan from God until such time as they could be delivered whole and pure into the 'real' family of their future husband. I once heard someone refer to this as growing flowers for someone else's garden'. The prevailing wisdom was that it was best to take no chances with the virtue of sexually mature girls. For girls of Motiba's class and generation, the carefree phase of life came to a sudden and crushing halt at puberty. The rule in 34 Jain Spirit. June - August 2002 Page #37 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Girls Can't Study? Aunt Jasi, was also extremely bright, the only other child in extinct, the pre-television age, when all performance was the family to win a full scholarship, in her case to attend the live. Life in Gokhlana today has changed little from what it first school for girls opened in Jetpur. But at age twelve, she was when Motiba lived there, with one portentous too was made to quit school. She was eighty-three years old exception: on the roof of the house next to the one in which when she told me this and as she spoke her voice rose and Motiba was born is a new television satellite receiver dish. trembled with emotion. "I was just as smart as he was!" she It has been put to practical use by the lady of the house who cried. Jasiphaiba's revenge was to make sure that her own has neatly laid hand-printed patties of cow dung out to dry daughter got as full an around its base. education as possible, When my father, eventually completing a "Motiba truly belonged to an Dhirajmami, and I visited doctoral degree in social work. Gokhlana, we were invited by Motiba made the most of age now extinct, the pre-television the village elders to have tea in her little girl freedoms while the best room in the village: the she could. She romped in the age, when all performance was room directly under the roof of fields of wheat, sorghum, the dung-adorned satellite dish. pulses and cotton that live." where the only television set in surrounded the clustered town sat protectively shrouded earthen houses of Gokhlana. by an embroidered coverlet. She went barefoot most of the time, tripping across the Every available male in Gokhlana pressed into that room, fields and over irrigation ditches. One of her favourite squatting on his haunches and staring at us as we sipped treats were the fresh-cut stalks of sugar cane, which she scalding hot fresh tea - very strong, very milky, and very chewed thoroughly to extract every last drop of sweet juice. sweet - out of a hodgepodge collection of old chipped As a little girl, she was allowed to fly kites and play catch saucers. With considerable pride, the village elders took and marbles. With the other little girls in the village, she pains to make sure we noticed, acknowledged, and praised played at cooking with a miniature set of cookware made of the presence of the television set in their midst; an ultimate unfired terra-cotta. They also sang songs, particularly proof of Gokhlana's progress. wedding songs, accompanying themselves with silver bells, beating out the time with dandia sticks. "You are all so (c) Mira Kamdar: 1999 sweet, it just makes me feel like singing," began one The above article is extracted from 'Motiba's Tattoos ' by popular song of the day. Mira Kamdar: Ms. Kamdar lives in Washington State, USA What Motiba remembered the most about her early and is a Professor of Sociology. years in Gokhlana were the plays, know as bhavais, given by itinerant performers who earned their living travelling from village to village. There were re-enactments of stories from the great Hindu epic tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and from the folk tales of Kathiawar and the neighbouring Rajasthan. Every village had its own versions of regional folk plays, and these were performed on holidays. As acting by women was considered to be barely one step away from prostitution, all the female roles in these plays were performed by men. When Motiba was a little girl, the most famous of these actors was Jai Shankar Sundari, sundari meaning 'beautiful woman'. Jai Shankar Sundari, based in the big city of Ahmedabad, set the fashion of the day for women in small towns and villages throughout Gujarat, and the women in Gokhlana kept up with these trends as best they could. One of Motiba's strongest memories of her days in Gokhlana was a visit to the village by a troupe of itinerant A GRANDDAUGHTER'S JOURNEY tightrope walkers. Motiba was only three or, at most, five INTO HER INDIAN FAMILYS PAST years old. The performers strung a rope between the poles and made their way, step by teetering step, over the heads of MIRA KAM DA the enthralled villagers. Motiba was as awestruck as any of the local spectators. She truly belonged to an age now Motiba's Tattoos June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 35 Page #38 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ YOUTH WWW.DINODIA.COM Kartik Jain's award winning essay which came first in the Jain Spirit 2001 Essay Competition is about his pilgrimage to Shravana Belgola BAHUBALI: AL MY HERO LESUN ORIS IP offered this gold to his mother, his hands stuck together. His mother said, "There is a The 57' high statue of Bahubali is son, Chamund Raya who is giving so much carved out of a single rock gold to fulfil her mother's ambition and another is you who is spoiling me with THE TOUR STARTED ON 27 MAY FROM gold." The architect felt sorry for him and Sangali in Maharastra. We visited 25 started his work piously. The hill on which Jain higher educational institutes, 50 this statue was made is called Vindhya Giri Jain temples, 10 places of pilgrimage and 7 and is 3,347 feet high from sea level and Jain abbeys. At last on 7 June we reached 470 feet from the ground. the ultimate destination of our tour, There is another hill named Chandra Shravana Belgola. Shravana Belgola has its Giri opposite to Vindhya Giri, which is own importance in Jain places of pilgrimage 3,053 feet high from sea level and 173 feet for the unique 57-feet-high statue of Lord from the ground. Its ancient name is Gommatesvara Bahubali carved out of a Chikkabetta. According to inscriptions the single rock. This statue was built in 981 by last Shruta Kevali, Bhadra Bahu Swami had Chamund Raya, the minister of the then come to this place along with their 12,000 king Rachmalla of the Ganga Dynasty, who followers from Ujjain due to famine in north ruled Mysore and its adjoining areas for a India in the third century B.C. Bhadra Bahu period of nearly one thousand years. and after him his famous follower, King It is believed that Kalala Devi, the Chandragupta Maurya took their samadhi mother of Chamund Raya had expressed her on this hill due to which the name of the ambition to visit and see the high statue of place became Shravana Belgola - the Lord Bahubali in Podanpura. To fulfil her belgola (lake of white lotus) of Shravanas ambition, Chamunda Raya, together with (monks). The lake with the white lotus is her mother, started his journey for still here and is now called Kalyani Sarovar. Podanpura. They rested at Shravana There are 16 temples on the hill in which Belgola where he had a dream that Chandragupta Basadi is the oldest. The Podanpura is too far from here and also the famous gauze of 90 sections is also in this statue of Bahubali is encompassed by temple, in which various scenes were Kukutta snakes. "It is impossible for you to sculptured like Bhadra Bahu Swami leaving reach there. You should have a bow and Ujjain, Chandragupta accepting the diksha shoot a golden arrow tomorrow on the hill and his meditation. before you. You will have Lord Bahubali at Shravana Belgola is 90 km from the point where the arrow hits the hill." Mysore and 142 km from Bangalore, which In the morning, Chamund Raya did is also the nearest railway junction and the same. Surprisingly, there appeared the airport. Transport facility is available at any forehead of Lord Bahubali. Then Chamund time from here for Shravana Belgola. Raya appointed an architect and according to his wish he agreed to give him as much Kartik Jain is 17 years old and lives in gold as he cut the stone. When the architect | Khatauli, Uttar Pradesh, India. Good advice from the RSPCA about caring for animals when on holiday THEREVER YOU GO ON holiday overseas you are likely to come across animals. Many of them will not be properly cared for and you might find it upsetting. Here are some tips on how you can help: Stray situation. In many countries you'll find stray cats and dogs around your hotel or apartment. Please don't feed them - this only encourages more strays to the site and the animals then rely on tourists for food. This food source stops once the holiday season is over and local animal welfare societies then have to pick up the pieces. These organisations are often very small and rely entirely on donations to keep going. To help them out, why not donate some tinned or dried food or give them money to have one or more animals neutered. Try the phone PETA/KAR Sacred cow observes unholy traffic 36 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ YOUTH book or ask at the hotel's reception to find a local animal welfare organisation. Market trade Markets are a fact of life in many countries and you may very well see animals packed in cages which are far too small and left sitting in the hot sun. Often there are no laws governing how these animals are kept, but you could write to the local authorities pointing out how much better it would look to visitors if conditions were improved. Safe souvenirs Everyone likes to have a memento from their holiday, but this doesn't have to be at the expense of an animal. Please do not buy items such as ivory, tortoiseshell hair slides, exotic leather goods, multicoloured feathers, tropical shells, dried starfish, seahorses and coral as these all involve the death of an animal. Trade in these types of souvenirs has put many species at risk of extinction and in some cases it may be illegal to import the item without a special permit. If you go scuba diving, snorkelling or even paddling, don't walk on the coral and don't break any off to take home as a souvenir. Cruel entertainment Beware of beach photographers who will offer to take a picture of you with a chimp, monkey or lion cub. These animals are sedated with drugs to make them easier to handle. They spend all day in the hot sun being photographed with tourists. If you see a photographer with any sort of animal, refuse to have your picture taken with them. Keep away from places with performing animals such as dolphinariums and circuses. Often the animals suffer greatly for the entertainment of visitors and your presence only keeps places like these in business. Avoid going to see a bullfight at all costs. This is big business in Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico and South America and the money from tourists helps this cruelty to continue. In some countries you may be offered a ride on a pony, donkey, camel or horse and carriage. If you suspect any form of cruelty, don't take part. Benjamin Zephaniah VOICES FOR HOICES If you did not have a car You could still walk, If you did not have a phone You could still talk, If you did not have a batter Then the cricket would not matter And you could still eat all your greens Without a fork. If we did not have cartoons We'd all be funny, And we'd probably be more equal Without money, We could live without computers Dictators and persecutors And our lives could still be quite sweet Without honey. You could have a great big telly With no vision, We could all live without crime And without prison, Without dark we'd just have light Without light we'd just have night And if we tried we could eat cakes That have not risen. But I'm trying to make sure No one forgets, That we really needed Mighty Suffragettes, If they did not raise their voices Most of us would have no choices And I think that we'd have many Deep regrets. (c)Benjamin Zephaniah June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 37 Jain Education Intemational Page #40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ YOUTH I WAS CORNERED AND HUMILIATED Rakhee Shah shares her recent college experience of being forced to convert to Islam THAVE OFTEN HEARD OR READ ABOUT | Muslim. They stated that beneath the lungs PEOPLE converting to Islam. I recently in our bodies there is a network of veins that had a taste of this experience in one of illustrates Allah's statement. I refuted this my classes, when two Muslim boys by saying that each individual has a unique harassed me and forced me to enter into a and complex pattern of veins and that it is debate about religion against my will. impossible to have the same illustration in Following a brief introduction, they each one of us! They backed it up by saying questioned me on my whereabouts and that a discovery 'so great' would be kept made a rude comment to me about being secret from the world. Then they talked Indian and from Kenya! It was like just about the moon having a line through its because I'm Indian I should be from India! middle as evidence of their religion being I never thought there would still be so much the only true one'. They went on to claim ignorance nowadays. Can people not that their God several hundred years ago practise their religion wherever they are? It had pointed a finger towards the moon, was their next question that caught me off- splitting it into two halves and that when guard. I was questioned as to why I was men first set foot on the moon, this was Jain, was I forced into it or was it of my own proved once more by their discovery of a accord? I guess they sensed my frustration line through the moon. I remarked, "Is this towards their behaviour and so they pushed not a myth too!" it even further by accusing my beloved religion of being fake and full of myths and tales! "I was forced to At this point I tried to leave, as it was no good for me to waste my time on people who are so obstinate! However, they decided to block my path and not let me leave until they finished convincing me. I Next they started accusing the carvings was forced to sit down and have an on Hindu temples that illustrate sexual acts awkward discussion regarding religious and to that they added a sarcastic remark beliefs. It seemed to me that their speech about the Kamasutra. Since I did not want was well rehearsed and used many times to stoop to their level, I did not retaliate to before. this remark. They carried on to insult me They started talking about various about our belief in re-incarnation, to which issues that they emphasised as evidence they sarcastically stated, "God does not regarding the trueness of Islam unlike the have a short supply of souls!" They also rest of religions, and explained why the insulted the concept of karma, as they whole world should be Muslim. I tried to believe that the only way a being can get control my anger and with the basic punished is by God reproducing their sins knowledge I have of our religion, tried to on them in the same manner they had support my beliefs and to point out to them committed in Heaven. that religion is not a war to be won! They had the nerve to accuse They argued that everyone has some Ramayana and Mahabharata as being sort of imprint in their bodies stating Allah's entertainment stories and made up. They statement that makes all human beings laughed at the fact that Hindu men make women cross a fire to ensure their purity, and that the priests relate to sadhvijis as their mistresses! To that they also added that Muslim blood was the purest, by stating that if a Muslim and a non-Muslim were both to cut themselves and then compare their wounds after a few days, that of the nonMuslim would have a pungent smell, and that of a Muslim would be fragrant. To this I argued about their marrying within their families leading to a higher prevalence of genetic disorders and refuted to their point of Muslims being the healthiest. By then, I had had enough of these accusations on my religion and took my leave. I had to stop myself from stooping to their level. They had the nerve to ask me the following day whether I had done my research and made up my mind to be one of them! I feel that young people should know about their own culture and be able to defend themselves. Otherwise, they can easily become defenceless and vulnerable. I would hope that mine was an isolated experience, but somehow, I don't think so. I do know that Muslim preachers actively target college campuses. defend my culture." We need to hold on to our own culture if we are to resist conversion! 38 Jain Spirit * June - August 2002 Jain Education Intemational Page #41 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ bootbond Sema begonn benhtrull of Take it easy, carefully CHOOSE YOUR MATES Reana Shah recommends discretion in choosing friends tabato al cod Do ROWING UP IN A SOCIETY SUCH as today's where 'role models' such as Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez lack morality, teenagers such as myself often turn to peer groups for advice and companionship. Friends are an important part of every adolescent's existence because they have the ability to influence several aspects of our lives. As the saying goes, we are the company we keep. It is very easy to fall into the wrong companionship. During the tormenting teenage years, doing the wrong things seems to be a lot simpler than doing the right things. Our conscience is on vacation, so it is very easy to sway into the wrong company. Because friends are such an important part of our lives, it is vital to pick the right ones. This can be a difficult process of trial and error, but can also have various positive results. Because friends influence our relationships with our parents and other adults, our behaviours, actions, thoughts and academic success, picking an acceptable peer group definitely has the power to better one's life. Picking the wrong group to hang out with, however, can lead to a long YOUTH and harsh road of problems and difficulties. Finding friends, let alone acceptable ones, can be a tough process especially if one is shy or afraid. Our parents have raised us with good morals and a great value system, and it is important to remember this when looking for friends. To steer clear of wrong companionship, avoid people with a different value system than you This advocate. The people with corrupt value systems may be 'cool' but befriending them could very well lead to self-destruction. After deciding which groups are wrong, you must decide which groups are right. As mentioned, it is really important to pick friends that maintain the same morals. It's a fact of life: friends influence. To avoid being pressurised into something, it is wiser to pick the right peer group from the start. When doing this, keep in mind that the idle mind is the devil's workshop. Friends who are bored or have too much time on their hands can sometimes be a problem, because boredom increases the risk of getting into trouble. When getting involved in any peer group, you shouldn't feel forced to do something that you aren't comfortable with. You should be confident saying 'no' in tough situations and stand up for yourself. It is important that you can stand up to your peers, because you never want to end up forced to do something against your morals. You should always let your conscience guide you, even if that means doing something uncool'. You might be made fun of for a few days, but in the end you will be respected because you stood up for what you believed in and stayed true to your inner values. And that is definitely cool! Reana Shah lives and studies in a suburb of Los Angeles, California. She writes for the school newspaper. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 39 Page #42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ T WORSHIP HE PRIMARY JAIN PANTHEON IS THE GROUP OF twenty-four Tirthankaras, beginning with Lord Rishabhnath and ending with Lord Mahavir. While Tirthankaras are objects of reverence because devotion to them removes obstacles to faith, there are many other subservient figures, including guardian spirits, celestial beings and divinities. Known generally as tutelary deities (sasanadevatas), they are systematised in several classes such as divine male and female attendants (vakshas and yakshinis), peripatetic gods (vyantaradevtas) and goddesses of wisdom (vidyadevis). PADMAVATI: A SYMBOL OF HOPE Dinesh Z. Shah analyses the history and significance of this unique Jain angel Vidyadevis are an important group of Jain deities. The word vidya literally means knowledge, but from the earliest times it came to imply a special knowledge that gave power (shakti). There are sixteen of these deities and they are included in a special stotra called Shodash Vidyadevi Stotra. These devis are referred to in quite a few of them, the most common being the Broohachaantii Stotra and Shantikaram Stotra. In common with Hindus, Jains worship the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, while the oldest known image of Sarasvati, who is worshipped by the Hindus as the goddess of knowledge is in fact Jain (according to one school of thought), and dates from the early first century. 40 Yakshinis, devotees of the Tirthankaras, exemplify the quintessentially Jain principles of non-violence and restraint, being benevolent, vegetarian and celibate (brahmchari). The origin of the practice of linking each Tirthankara with a yaksha and yakshini is difficult to date. Some of these deities no doubt go to the foundation of Jainism in eastern India, and it has been suggested that others were introduced as the community gradually spread towards the west and south and adopted regional deities. However, textual and iconographic evidence points to the introduction of a full complement of twenty-four yakshas and yakshinis by the end of the eighth century. The four yakshinis who have have enjoyed the greatest attention are Padmavati, Cakreshvari, Ambika and Jwalamalini. Lord Parsvanath's (twenty third Tirthankara) yaksha is Dharanendra and his yakshini is Padmavati. Dharanendra is unique among the yakshas of the Tirthankaras because unlike others, he played an important role in the life of Parsvanath. Parsvapandita, a Kannada poet composed the Jain Spirit June-August 2002 Jain Education Intemational Parsvanathapuranam in the early part of the 13th century. In the poem, he describes Dharanendra as the leader of the nagas and as the destroyer of the upasargas created by Kamatha. Kamatha was an esoteric mendicant and was practising the ordeal of five fires'. Parsva saved a pair of serpents from being burnt in the fire, and they eventually became his yaksha and yakshini, as Dharanendra and Padmavati. He also gives an elaborate picture of how Dharanendra, the lord of the nether world, emerged out of earth. Kamatha, in order to disturb Parsva's meditation had sent a great storm with the help of the evil deity, Meghamali and that caused such a downpour that the water level came up to Parsva's nose. It was then that Dharanendra spread his enormous hood over the meditating Parsva, and his consort Padmavati held an umbrella to protect her husband in turn. Like Lord Parsvanath, Padmavati has also one hundred and eight names. The scriptures mention that her mount is rooster-cum-snake (kukkutasarpa); she has four hands and is a person of utmost beauty. However, a bronze seventhcentury image of Padmavati from Karnataka, Southern India has twenty-four arms with a three-hooded snake canopy surmounted with an effigy of Parsvanath. This is on display in the Hamburg Museum, Germany. One of the most famous shrines of Padmavati is found in Hombuja in Karnataka. Nearly 1200 years ago a king, Jinadattaraya built this city. A lot of gold (hombu) was found around the city and it was therefore called Hombuja. The story of how the city was established is interesting. Jinadattararaya's stepmother was plotting to overthrow him. However, somehow his natural mother became aware of this conspiracy and advised her son, King Jinadattaraya to leave the city and head south to southern Madhure, the place of his maternal uncles. She gave him an idol (murti) of Padmavati wrapped in a special cloth bag and bid farewell to her son. She said, "May Goddess Padmavati protect you always," and King Jinadattaraya left for the forest with few of his trusted lieutenants. When King Jinadattaraya's father (who had abdicated the throne to his son on the advice of his Guru Siddhantakirti) and his stepmother knew about this, they sent an army to bring him back, dead or alive. When they were on the verge of capturing him, Jinadattaraya removed the image of Padmavati from the bag Page #43 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Padmavati - A Symbol of Hope And Courage 4 and put it ceremoniously on the ground. He sat in front of the idol and started chanting her mantras. Soon panic set in the army of his adversaries and they ran for their lives without any regard for their mission. As a result, Jinadattaraya's faith in Jain religion was reinforced and he became fearlessly determined to walk through the forest to southern Madhure. He decided to take some rest in the forest and fell asleep. Padmavati appeared to him in a dream. She told him that the place was full of natural resources, nearby there was a deposit of gold and this was a very holy land. Furthermore, Padmavati told him in his dream that she would like to be consecrated under the tree he was resting. He followed her instructions and regularly started to worship at the place of the consecration of the image. Soon Jinadattaraya with the help of his men found the gold deposits and built a city with the temple of Parsvanath and Padmavati. He also built other temples and a commemorative column. He then established an order whose head was given the title of Shree His Holiness Devendrakirti Bhattaraka. Even today, this most unique holy shrine is under the control of that order. There is no firm evidence about the reason and timing of the demise of Hombuja City. Today, a few sculptures assignable to the probable time of Jinadattaraya are the only relics of earlier art and architecture surviving in Hombuja. However, what is clear is that the arrival of Jinadattaraya together with the murti of Padmavati brought an enormous transfor- An original painting of mation to the area. The tribal Padmavati, being worshipped hunters of the forest became by Pandit Dhirajlal Tokershi craftsmen and part of the forest was turned into a new city. One school of thought states that any base metal placed near Padmavati's murti turned into gold (alchemy- parasmani). In the last seven hundred years or so, there have been quite a few charismatic worshippers of Padmavati. In the fourteenth century, Jinaprabhasuriji became a very famous Jain acharya. He attained many insights into the worship of Padmavati. In Delhi, he earned great respect from the court of Sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq and as a result he obtained protection for the holy sites of Girnar and Satrunjaya. Whenever Jinaprabhasuriji conducted Padmavati's special prayers her presence (darshan) was felt and she always fulfilled the task she was assigned. In the last century, one of the most devoted and outstanding exponents of Padmavati was Satavdhani Pandit Shree Dhirajlal Tokershi Shah (Panditji). Panditji concluded that Padmavati's poojas are performed in about twenty different names of Padmavati, amongst them Raktapadmavati being the most popular (rakta means red). On this basis Panditji had commissioned a painting of Padmavati, which he used throughout his life for his intense prayers (aradhna). The painting shows Padmavati seated in the padmasana posture on a lotus flower in the middle of a lake and at her back rises a serpent with its five-hooded canopy above her crown. Of the two hands on her right, the top hand is holding a noose (pasa) and the bottom hand is displaying a boon conferring gesture (varadamudra); of the two hands on her left, the top hand is carrying an goad (ankusa) and the bottom hand is carrying a fruit (phala). She has three eyes, the third eye for extra sensory powers. She is wearing a crown and on top of the crown is an effigy of Lord Parsvanath. She is also wearing earrings and there is a ring on one finger on each of the top hands. There are bracelets and bangles on all the four hands. She is also wearing two necklaces and an ornamental waistband. On each of the four corners of the painting is the mantra Hrim (seed of energy and illusion). This painting holds power and tranquillity in equal measure. During his life Panditji became well known for conducting poojas and he became one of the foremost authorities on Padmavati. He wrote many books in Gujarati on various aspects of Jain religion. His book, Shree Parsvapadmavati Aradhna was first published in 1972. The later edition of the book contains for the first time the meanings and commentary on Padmavatistotra in Gujarati. This stotra describes her many virtues, abilities, powers in graphic detail. The book also sets out in meticulous details the preparation for the pooja and its whole conduct including mantras, aarti and the finale. Panditji worshipped this yakshini as Mahadevi Padmavatimata, the great angel. Dinesh Z. Shah loves Jain wisdom and is a keen student. He lives in London, where he has a small home shrine. June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 41 Page #44 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ WORKPLACE VALUING WORK Rae Sikora suggests how work can become an extension of home and not divorced from it OU LIVE IN A COMPASSIONATE home. Maybe you do not eat any meat, dairy or eggs. Maybe you have chosen not to buy leather or wool or silk. You feel good about how you and your family have chosen to live. If you are like most people living this type of lifestyle, you feel you are doing enough and may not want to learn more ways to bring compassion into your life. Change is difficult. It is difficult in our homes and is even more difficult to bring it to the workplace. We want to fit in and belong in our communities and workplaces. We do not want to be 'different', be the bearers of bad news or the ones who are always bringing up issues to those around us. So, how do we continue living our compassionate values when we walk out of our homes and enter our workplaces? How do we go beyond living our values personally, into having our workplace reflect and support our values? The most difficult task may be either choosing work that truly reflects our values or changing our careers to the ones that are more aligned with who we are and what we believe in. In order to do this, we need to redefine wealth. What is true wealth? Is it something that can be measured by the size of our house or the size of our bank account? What does a wealthy life really look like? We have the opportunity to look at this for ourselves. My definition of a wealthy 42 Jain Spirit June - August 2002 or rich life would be a life with plenty of time to spend with the family and friends and to be outdoors. I would include having good health, a roof over my head and organic food in the refrigerator. My definition would also include meaningful work that uses my skills, reflects whom and what I care about and causes as little harm as possible in the world around me. "You will be amazed at how even the smallest pebble of change in the workplace can cause huge ripples." For some of us choosing this type of work may mean that we do not have fat bank accounts. But, are we poor? By American standards, probably yes. By global standards, far from it. In the U.S. we consume 30% of the world's resources, but we are only 5% of the world's population. We are a culture of consumers. We spend an average of six hours per week shopping and 40 minutes connecting with our children. This consumer society has often put people in the position of living beyond their means. It has also put many people in the position of working in careers that do not reflect their core values. Sometimes, people are afraid to switch to a career that is more aligned with their values, for fear of not being able to pay their bills. I have met people who work as scientists in labs doing experiments on animals. I have asked them if they feel good about what they do. The answer I have received was usually, "No, but I think it is helping humanity." As we look closer at some of our choices, we may find that justifying or rationalising the value of our work is only a way to keep ourselves doing it but it is not necessarily true. Once you have chosen a career that fits your values, you may still be faced with daily decisions that are a challenge. The organisation I cofounded, IIHE/CCL, is based on the principles of compassionate living. Our core values are reflected in the educational work we do. Still, we are constantly faced with decisions that make it difficult to feel that our compassionate values are being reflected in our daily actions. I fly to workshops and programmes, and contribute to one of the most environmentally unsound transportation choices. We print materials using paper and ink daily. We have chosen to use recycled paper and soy-based inks. This choice means more expense for us. We were also told that our copy machine breaks down more often than it would if we used virgin fibre paper. Page #45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Valuing Work Rae Sikora addressing a workshop on Business Ethics Choices face us each day. They may throw away millions of aluminium yourself up for not having the work seem trivial but when you multiply the cans enough to build six thousand that reflects your values. Instead, choices each of us makes by six billion DC10 airplanes. Starting paper and lovingly look at caring possibilities for on the planet, they make a huge beverage container recycling programs the new directions your work could difference. is not difficult if the responsibility is take. Sit with your family and together For those of us who work for shared. create a vision of how you want your companies that are not founded on If there is going to be an event with lives to look. As you re-define wealth compassionate values, we have an food served, suggest that a vegetarian with your family, you will find that opportunity to look at how we show up choice be included or (depending on more choices are available to you in personally and how much we are the work environment) volunteer to be terms of career. You will find that willing to speak up about the actions of in charge of the food for events. You what you once defined as a 'need' gets the company as a whole. can then have satisfying vegetarian re-defined as a 'want'. Soon many of Personally, we can have a huge food served. If you make choices from those 'wants' will be material things influence on the workplace by being the wide variety of ethnic foods now you can live without and your life will the genuine and caring examples of available, most people will love it. simplify to the point of allowing you to compassionate lifestyles. Bringing a Everything from the cleaning products choose where you work and how you wonderful vegan dish to a company to the office supplies can be looked at show up as an example to others. social event or just to share one at and shifted to more compassionate Remember how important your lunchtime can be an inviting way to choices. voice is. Let it be heard at your introduce your choices to your co The most important aspect of workplace. Let it be heard by being a workers. We do not have to fight for making the changes personally or on a living example of compassion. people to change. We simply have to larger scale in the workplace is to Without judging others, be the type of be the shining, inviting examples of come from a loving place. Be positive an inviting person and a positive possibilities. and inviting when looking at the many influence that others want to follow. Beyond the personal, we can look ways your workplace could become an You will be amazed at how even the at how much energy we are willing to example of compassionate living. You smallest pebble of change in the put into having our workplaces may even want to suggest a mission or workplace can cause huge ripples. become more and more of a reflection goal statement that could be of who we are. If there is no recycling incorporated into the workplace program at your workplace, you can standards. More and more companies Rae Sikora is Executive Director of establish one. Recycling may seem and organisations are analysing their The International Institute for Humane like a small thing. Once again, if positive or negative input on the Education and The Center for multiplied by the number of people on environment. Compassionate Living in Surrey, the planet, it becomes a very important On a personal level it is important Maine USA. choice. In the U.S. alone, each year we to be gentle with yourself. Do not beat www.compassionateliving.org June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 43 www.jainelibrary org Page #46 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ PEAKS OF Abbey On The Pinnacle, Meteor, Greece Photo : Robert Radin Forate & Penal Use Only www.jainelibrar Page #47 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ENVIRONMENT SANCTUARY Michael Tobias explains how mountains have deeply inspired Jain thinking, art and culture ACRED LANDSCAPES ABOUND IN EVERY CULTURE, MYTH and human tradition. Species other than human have S delighting at particular points of interest in a landscape (for example, chimpanzees have been seen paying obeisance to a waterfall in Tanzania). While the precise definition of sacred varies, there are universal coefficients of the concept that have been ascribed to mountains and caves, to nature that is longer lasting and larger than ourselves. In his essay Modesty and the Conquest of Mountains, Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Arne Naess once wrote, "...the smaller we come to feel ourselves compared to the mountain, the nearer we come to participating in its greatness." Even in regions without noticeable mountains, indigenous peoples have harboured mountain lore or some ascension myth preoccupied with the discovery of paradise - typically, a plateau safely sheltered from the woes of the world and endowed with a cornucopia of pleasures. For those regions blessed by areas of higher altitude, the confluence of Creation myths, wilderness ideology and artistic and spiritual retreat all converge on mountains (as well as the caves within) that have for millennia served as focal points of intellectual energy and pilgrimage for whole cultures and civilizations. Hundreds of books, thousands of research papers have been written on the nature of sacred mountains, imagination in wilderness and the artistic. legacies of landscape painting which is so much concerned with the mountain environment. There are literally thousands of sacred mountains throughout the world like Mt. Fuji or Koya in Japan, Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka, the nine primary sacred mountains of China (such as Hua Shan and T'ien -T'ai Shan), Mount Sinai in Egypt (sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike), Jomo Langma (Everest) in Tibet, the Hagiri sa Kalibutan (Pillars of the World) in the Philippines, "Mountains have provided a sanctuary for generations of artists and explorers." Peaks Of Sanctuary Africa's Mount Kenya (sacred to the Kikuyu), Mount Olympus in northern Greece, Gunung Agung in Bali, the Russian volcanoes of Kamchatka, or the four sacred Navajo mountains (Blanca Peak, Mount Taylor, the San Francisco Peaks and Hesperus Peak). On some, God is said to have revealed his/her inner thoughts and commandments. On others, great ascetics fasted and achieved enlightenment. Some mountains have provided inspiration for one generation after another of explorers, scientists, poets and painters: from the fourth-century Chinese Hsieh Ling-Yun, who went searching to a Taoist paradise south of the Yangtze and invented crampons to assist him, to Leonardo da Vinci, who was fascinated by mountain geology, glaciations and perspective. Goethe lent his omniscient intellect to a contemplation of highlanders and mountain culture, while Percy Shelley perceived in the Caucasus and Himalayas the Biblical paradise ascribed by John Milton in Paradise Lost. In Shelley's epic love poem, Alastor or the Spirit of Solitude, he envisioned himself dying on a lonely ledge somewhere in the Veil of Kashmir, at peace with himself, at home in the world, a monk that had become one with the mountain. Sung dynasty painter-poet Kuo Hsi described this obsession in the mid-11th century: "Inexhaustible is their mystery. In order to grasp their creations One must love them utterly, Study their essential spirit diligently, And never cease contemplating them And wandering among them." There are still some 300 million mountain people in the world those who actually subsist upon mountain environments. There are even more people whose affiliation with mountains are largely spiritual or emotional. The Jains do not live for the most part on the sides of mountains but their traditions, art, pilgrimage sites and June August 2002 Jain Spirit 45 Page #48 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ENVIRONMENT ROBERT RADIN history have much to do with the mountain world. The eighth chapter of the Dasasrutaskandha of Bhadrabahu, known as the Kalpasutra, is perhaps the most widely known of all Jain texts. It is read aloud traditionally on the fiftieth night following the beginning of the monsoon, the period of so-called 'rain rest' for monks. The book describes the life of several Jinas, including Mahavir. Quietly scattered throughout the text there are mentions of mountains, beginning with one of Trisala's dreams, wherein she perceives the Goddess Sri seated amid the highest of Himalayan peaks, whilst the Sun circles the great Mount Meru (the Buddhist name for the Hindu Kailas) rising 22,028 feet in south-western Tibet. When Mahavir gives up all clothing, using his hands as a begging bowl, renounces his body and truly becomes abodeless (anagarika), his detachment is likened to the composure and imperturbability of the "Mandara Mountain', a most penetrating linguistic insight into the psychological rudiments of Jain landscape aesthetics and metaphysics. Michael Tobias at a small ashram in India Mandara is the Japanese Buddhist form of the Sanskrit mandala, referring to a magical diagram or artistic the mountain world. As the transcendence of physical schematic. Typically, the mandala is an aid in envisioning karma is key to understanding enlightenment within Jain supreme realisation, nirvana, the Unity of Multiplicity. In tradition, it is remarkable that Jains - who are largely urban Buddhist art mandalas are paintings that lavishly describe in their lifestyles and devotion - have originated so vast a itineraries to paradise or fashion some vision of the wilderness ideology. Otherworld, usually a mountain kingdom populated by The iconographical bastions of Jain tradition, the deities. Inherent to the mountain Otherworld was a mountain as well as the cave, emerge repeatedly in the philosophical system of meditating on the image to foster Kalpasutra. Parsva is described as dying while in transcendence and achieve all the ethical and spiritual goals meditation on the summit of Mount Sammet; Aristanemi inherent to Buddhism. passes quietly away atop Mount The art form of the mandala, Ujjayanta (Girnar); Rishabhnath painted across countless temple walls, "Mountains are catapults breathes his last whilst in deep thought in caves, on cloth or silk, was on the summit of Mount Astapada. All developed in India prior to its adoption these Jain places where individuals have across Asia and the Orient. In its achieved nirvana are known as Siddhabroadest form, the mandala suggests kshetra, of which the five principal ones the full ecological complement of enlightenment which was happen to be mountains: Mt. Abu in Rajasthan, pan-Indian to the core. But it was also Jain in the form of Shatrunajaya in Gujarat, Girnar in Saurashtra, Sammet the jinapatas wherein a Tirthankara was depicted as Shikhar in Bihar and the above-mentioned Astapada enthroned in the centre of a samavasarana, the gathering somewhere at the centre of all creation. Caves are equally place or hall for the delivery of a Jina's first sermon. These pervasive in Jain art and tradition. Consider, for example, places were mountain villages, as painted, surrounded by those dark abysses at Barabar, Nagarjuni, Sonbhandar, eight terraces upon which the first Jina, Rishabhnath along Saurashtra, Camar Lena, Bhamer, Dharasinva, Kotri and with nineteen other subsequent Tirthankaras are believed to Sita-ki Nahani. Jain rock hermitages are found in both have died (all atop Mount Sammet Shikhar in Bihar). In northern and southern India. Whole groups of Jain caves addition, the five Merus - said to be the central mountains are to be found at Sittanavasal, Aihole, Vatapi and Ellora, of five continents - also figure prominently in the jinapatas. where there are five such celebrated recesses, to name but a This art form is also replicated in the caumukh temples in few. Even many exterior temples are hewn from a cliff such which a world mountain (Meru) is again surrounded by as that of Shravana Belgola, with the huge Gommatesvara representations of the Tirthankara. These mountain config- statue (Bahubali, son of Rishabhnath) upon Vindhyagiri urations replaced the Hindu stupas - an architectural form connoting enlightenment, burial and the Himalayas, to The physical identification with mountain lairs and varying degrees - but sustained the physical components of sanctuaries in Jain tradition bespeaks of an absolute religious transcendence being described and facilitated by retirement from the mundane world; a renunciation and to Moksha." hill. 46 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Page #49 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Peaks Of Sanctuary asceticism that is consistent with every aspect of Jain ethics. Writing of the Hindu affection for mountains, Chile's former ambassador to India, Miguel Serrano has stated, "These extraordinary people had created a mythology as gigantic as the mountaintops which surrounded their country. These very mountains were united to their souls... Like most people who look upon nature as something symbolic, they are forever condemned to the eternal and immeasurable. In order to survive in ordinary life, and so as not to lose themselves forever on this otherworldly plane, they have had to create an elaborate structure around them, with the result that they live almost entirely according to formulas." All those customised rules, regulations and spiritual elements that are fundamental to the Jain world are thoroughly tapped within the austere confines of the mountain. As with their Hindu compatriots, Jains too are fond of pilgrimage. Like a mountain climber, the majority of Tirthankaras 'conquered themselves ultimately atop mountains. Absolute absence of passion (kasaya), care in walking (irya-samiti), sense of kinship and equality with all life forms (samyatva), spiritual liberation (sayogakevalin), austerity (tapas), pilgrimage (yatra), the interdependency of the soul (parasparopagraho jivanam), the highest soul (paramatman), renunciation (pravrajya) and liberation in this life (jivanamukti) are all elements of a spiritual puzzle that the vertical altitudes and bare margins of life on a mountain dictate to the religious observer. Foremost among these principles of life and behaviour, ahimsa reigns supreme. In this sense, Jain peaks, caves and valleys collectively signal a veritable mountain range of compassion. Identification with the mountain, and the modesty which mountains necessarily inflict upon the human ego, is given to non-violence. Within Chinese Buddhist tradition, the liberation of animals (fang-sheng) and the philosophy of non-killing (chieh-sha) - according to scholar Joanna Handlin Smith - can be traced back to the 5th century. Not surprisingly, that is precisely the period when sacred mountains and mountain asceticism enjoyed a renaissance of interest. In my own exploration and pilgrimage to mountains and within mountain wildernesses, I have forever been reminded of the simplicity of human life. What do we really need after all in any given day? A few pieces of fruit and vegetable, exercise, fresh air and a cosy place to lie down at night, look at the stars and dream. To wake up connected to this earth. To participate in the myriad of weathers, the biological and aesthetic elegance which the mountain environments foster. To be honed, rarified and made whole by a world to which dreamers, pilgrims and philosophers on all continents will forever and nostalgically look heavenward. Jain culture has intrinsically expressed these things from the near beginning of time. Michael Tobias is an avid mountain climber. He has edited two books on mountains (The Mountain Spirit, 1979 and Mountain People, 1986) and written several books on Jainism. JOIN THE JAIN SPIRIT TEAM Raise your skills and self confidence, are you... * Concerned about the state of the world? Concerned about your own culture and community? * Motivated working in teams toward detined goals? * Proud of your culture and want to know more? Excited about Jain Spirit and want to get involved? There are immediate vacancies in... If you are interested please write in the first instance to ATUL K. SHAH, Editor, Jain Spirit, 14 Cowdray Office Centre, Cowdray Avenue, Colchester, COI iQB, U.K. Tel: +44 (0)1206 500037 Web design, updating and development * Marketing of Jain Spirit * Fund raising * Maintaining subscription database * Research and writing for the magazine * Photography, artwork and design June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 47 Page #50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ENVIRONMENT GO ORGANIC Ketan Shah encourages people to eat healthily and preserve nature THINKING OF JOINING THE ORGANIC BANDWAGON? | grandparents. Yet no mother intentionally feeds her Scientific reasons, as espoused by Craig Sams a pioneer children harmful food and no spouse deliberately cooks up in natural foods, should convince you to reduce and lethal dinners. The dishes look lovely enough. The eventually cut out where possible food from intensive farming: ingredients from the supermarkets look colourful, smooth, "Organic food regulations prohibit hydrogenated fat (a cause of perfect: firm yellow bananas, bright oranges, bright green heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity), aspartame (a lettuce, long grain rice, shiny polished dal, wholesome neurotoxin), phosphoric acid (which causes osteoporosis), wheat, identical green beans. So what's wrong with them? antibiotics (reduced immunity), hormones (gender confusion, Modern, non-organic conventional farming based on obesity, multi-generational cancer), pesticides (with mutagenic, cheap food policy has drenched farms with artificial carcinogenic and unknown 'cocktail' effects), BSE (human fertilisers and pesticides for ever increasing yields. Most of variant CJD), GMOs (probably IBS, Crohn's disease, autism, us simply don't understand how dangerous they are. Some other gut-based diseases), or any of the 7,000 artificial pesticides are related to nerve gases and all of them are colourings, flavourings, preservatives and poisonous. They have to be - they are processing aids that are permitted in designed to kill. Do we really know conventional food (also causing cancer, "Modern food is what the accumulation of potent liver diseases and gut problems)." pesticide residues from fruits and fruit Many people have already started to deceptively packaged to look juices in children's bodies is doing to replace intensively farmed foods and non them? Heart disease, diabetes, obesity, foods such as clothes, toiletries and even attractive but in reality liver and kidney diseases can develop home decoration items, paints and textile over a long period of time. By the time we are middle aged, it is too late. Some have gone even further and made it ow Perversely, the strength of their career choice after seeing the light'. Due to increasing organic food lies in what it does not contain: artificial media coverage of the dangers of conventionally farmed food, fertilisers, hundreds of the legally permitted insecticides, and being confronted daily with stories of BSE, Foot and pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, waxes, hormones, Mouth disease, salmonella poisoning and animal cruelty, young antibiotics, artificial colourings, flavourings, preservatives, people in the midst of shaping their future are actively flavour enhancers or other additives present in non-organic questioning the ethics of their preferred industry and seeking foodstuffs and consumer goods. Complete freedom from better alternatives. Some are taking more holistic approaches this cocktail reflects an ideal situation. However, it takes a to their current careers. long time, especially here in the UK, to convert a convenFood today is rarely thought out carefully. It is hurriedly tional farm into an organically maintained one. Even the cooked and eaten, and increasingly detached from the simple latter is susceptible to background pollution from residues cooking methods of our Jain forebears. Ironically, every already present in the air, water and soil. Then there is the culture has its diet rooted in organic farming - agricultural, additional problem of GMO organisms and pesticides industrial and food processing chemicals simply were not used drifting from neighbouring non-organic farms. before the mass marketing of these insidious additives by giant Organics is more than a food issue and therein lie its agro-chemical companies. The truly frightening aspect is the strength. Anyone can make a real difference to his stealth with which the accumulative effects of eating environment by being sensitive and adopting organics' selfintensively farmed foods and living in polluted environments fulfilling principles, whether at home or in business. Clive affects our health. Heart disease, many cancers, diabetes, Smith summarises the key organic issues best: animal obesity and allergies are problems that do not occur overnight welfare, environment, health and resources. These sound but creep up after years of eating food that looks benign but uncannily like the modern Jain principles espoused by Jain isn't. Spirit. There is something interesting after all in the old How has this come about? A favourite line of conversation Jain 'religion'! in Jain households is how poorly we compare with our hardy Organic livestock is free from the routine use of 48 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Jain Education Interational Page #51 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Go Organic WWW.DINODIA.COM following organic practices. One of the dreadful effects of the pesticide lindane is breast cancer, yet its use continues unabated! Farmers suffer from neurological illnesses. And it does not stop there. We frequently use toxic chemicals in our domestic gardens, golf courses, sports fields and public parks. The avoidance of the routine use of artificial chemicals means that organic farming minimises pollution and health problems. The use of renewable resources is preferred over non-renewable ones such as fossil fuels. These fuels are the raw materials for artificial fertilisers and agricultural chemicals. Organic methods of production may result in smaller yields per acre, but the overall energy costs of Traditional food sources, ingredients and methods of cooking production are a fraction of those of are now proven to be the most healthy industrially produced foods. Just consider that antibiotics and other drugs. These animals have access to fields fossil fuels are not just used in the production of agrofor grazing and are allowed to express their natural behaviours. chemicals - they are also used for their collection, They have comfortable bedding and enough space in their processing and delivery, adding to global warming and enclosures. The routine use of antibiotics and other drugs is atmospheric pollution. In contrast, the organic farmer uses avoided because running a healthy, balanced system prevents manpower, creates employment in rural areas and uses many diseases. much less fossil fuels because of the prohibition of Research has shown that organic farming can be better for insecticides, herbicides, pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, and the environment than intensive agriculture. For a start, wildlife he puts emphasis on the local supply of produce. is kept safe from the deathly effect of pesticides and other The Soil Association, a UK based organic certifying chemicals. Non-food plants are not killed routinely. All this body promoting the idea that our health is directly means that there are more food resources available for wild connected to the health of the food we eat and, ultimately, animals, insects and birds. Their habitat is protected. Industrial the health of the soil' succinctly summarises the ten reasons agriculture on the other hand does enormous damage to the why an organic (read 'Jain') way of life is better for us: environment. Dangerous substances have been accumulating *To protect future generations in our soil and water over the decades. * To pay the real cost of real food Produce from organic farms is a safer and healthier option. To have an independent guarantee Unlike soil that has suffered chemical abuse, organically To protect water quality maintained soil is alive, rich in humus and well balanced, full *To enjoy greater flavour and nutrition of micro-organisms and friendly bacteria. Industrial agriculture * To keep chemicals off your plate destroys bio-diversity. The gene banks of thousands of To reduce global warming and save energy varieties of food plants are lost forever and with them the as * To prevent soil erosion yet-undiscovered medicinal plants that could hold the key to To help small farmers life-threatening diseases. The effects on human health have been extensively *To help restore biodiversity mentioned earlier in this article. Apart from that, organic food Only if we all adopt this lifestyle, will many complacent tastes far better than conventionally grown food and has higher political leaders and governments, comfortable in their cosy concentration of vitamins, minerals and cancer fighting anti relationships with large agro-chemical businesses, sit up oxidants. Who can forget the taste and aroma of the organic and take notice. Even crises such as BSE and Foot and by-default' fruits such as bananas that we used to enjoy in East Mouth have not awakened them from their stupor. But it is Africa? Sadly there too, intensive farming is now used to fill still not too late! the vast agro' warehouses of European supermarket chains. Ketan Shah is a founder of Veggie-Mart, a company which This has led to the creation of bland and pesticide-rich horticultural produce. Genetically Modified food is prohibited sells organic and environment-friendly products, in the organic movement. Useful websites: Pollution of our air, land and water and thus our food, is a www.vegsoc.org www.vegansociety.com www.hdra.org.uk major hazard to our health. Pollution is so easily avoidable by www.foe.co.uk www.greenpeace.org.uk www.fairtrade.org.uk June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 49 Page #52 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ INTERFAITH THE UGH-LY BUGLIES Quellen segi Animals have been an integral part of India's folklore. Maneka Gandhi takes a look at some of the less familiar and perhaps less loved creatures 50 mob tuo ni og bikin da phy consbio To W TORKING ON AN UPCOMING FUNDRAISER FOR 'People for Animals' featuring a jewellery collection based on Karnadeva, the God of Love, I came across a description of the god as a handsome youth riding a parrot, his bow string made of bees, each of the five arrows a different flower, his emblem a dolphin. Who would not be tempted into love with such imagery! Similarly charming instances of animals in myth and legend come from all over the world. There is this lovely story of the kingfisher or halcyon. In Greek myth, Alcyne, daughter of Aeolus, king of the winds, found her husband drowned and cast herself into the sea. The gods rewarded her devotion by turning her into a kingfisher and Aeolus forbade the winds to blow during the 'halcyon days' - the seven days before and after the winter solstice when legend has it that the kingfisher lays its eggs. In different cultures the same creatures symbolise completely different things. For example in early civilisations like Babylon, China, Japan, Greece and Rome the dragon was a sacred, benevolent creature, an emblem of divinity and power, a symbol of prosperity, rain and wisdom. Its serpent body symbolised matter and water, its wings spirit and breath. BRON Jain Spirit June-August 2002 . MIKE TURNER VICKY The Chinese celestial dragon guarded the kingdom of the gods, the three-clawed dragon of Japan symbolised the Mikado, the imperial and spiritual power. By contrast, the western world treated dragons as enemies who lived in dark caves and breathed fire. One of their saints is anointed for no better reason than killing the last dragon. Similarly with bats. In ancient Egypt they were regarded as a lucky charm and hung on dovecotes to prevent doves from leaving, while for American Indians they represented new life emerging from the darkness of the earth's womb. In parts of Africa they are revered as the souls of the dead. In Greece, they were the symbol of vigilance. In China bats symbolised health, wealth, longevity and an easy death; in fact the very word for bat, Fu, also means good luck. It is only Western mythology that associates bats with vampires, witches and the devil. India has perhaps one of the richest collections of animal folklore. But I'm not going to talk about elephants and monkeys. Instead, let's look at some less familiar and less loved creatures - some people call them the ugh-ly buglies - beginning with my most favourite insect, the spider. She (I think of spiders as female because they are believed to represent the creative force of life) is one of the most powerful creatures in all myth and symbolism. She is believed to represent wisdom, creativity and new life. Her intelligence compensates for her size allowing her to ensnare other creatures. Her web is believed to connect her to nature's four elements. Many native American tribes had a spider deity. In the plains this was Inktomi, the trickster spider, a shape changer that brought culture to her people. The Pueblos had the Spider Woman who created the universe, while the Kiowa had the spider grandmother who brought light into the world. A Greek story relates how the goddess Athene entered into a spinning contest with a beautiful human girl, Arachne. Upon losing, the jealous goddess turned Arachne into a "Believe it or not, lizards are wizards," Page #53 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Ugh-ly Buglies spider and so she still continues to spin dexterously. In Hinduism the spider weaves life from its own body and is also the creator of illusion or maya jaal. So the next time you see this wondrous lady, think of her mystical properties. Who knows - she could augur a new project or even an addition to the family. In Jain paintings of the universe (loka), insects and small animals such as fishes are also included. Believe it or not, lizards are wizards. Remember the story of Shivaji who used a gekko to scale an impregnable Mughal fort. Native Americans considered the lizard the master of animals and fish, the messenger through whom the god informed man that he was mortal. Hawaii has lizard gods who are revered as our animal ancestors. In Maori myth, it was the lizard who rescued the first of the human race from the waters of creation. In Polynesia, Moko the king of lizards is worshipped as the god who protects fishing, Australian aboriginal folklore has a lizard hero who is believed to have taught the people arts. And there you were dismissing this fine, if not upstanding creature as a creepy crawly. Shame. Mice are nice. Ganesha has one for his mount and it represents foresight and prudence. In Egypt, rats were worshipped and regarded as symbols of great wisdom since they always chose the best bread. The Romans drew omens from rats: to see a white rat meant good fortune. In Japan a white rat accompanies the god of happiness and is also an attribute of the god of wealth. The rat is the first of the animals in the Chinese zodiac. Legend has it that centuries ago, the Chinese were looking for a way to measure time. So the Jade Emperor arranged a contest on his birthday. The first twelve animals to cross a certain river would be assigned to the 12 zodiac years; the cat and the rat who were then good friends but poor swimmers persuaded the good-natured and gullible ox to carry them over. As they neared the shore, the rat pushed the cat into the water and leaped over the ox's back to come first in the race. The cat, of course, has never forgiven the rat for his perfidy, but we have to admire the little fellow's guts. Finally the pig. The movie Babe went a long way towards re-establishing this brave and intelligent animal's place in history. Worshipped by the Greeks, it was the pig that suckled Zeus. Equally revered in Egypt, the pig was sacred to Isis. The black pig was the form taken by the Egyptian god Set in his typhoon aspect. In Chinese legend, the pig represents the unbridled power of nature. For the native Americans the pig was a rain bearer. Here in Hinduism, we have the Adamantine sow, Vajravarahi, queen of heaven, as the feminine counterpart of Vishnu's boar incarnation. She also appears in Tibetan Buddhism. Neither greedy nor dirty, the pig deserves more appreciation. Every animal, bird and insect is extremely important to the earth - enough to be venerated. Even the cockroach, without whom your forest leaves will not turn to mulch and your sewers will choke from all the deadly rubbish that you send into them. However, I am still trying to find a cockroach god. Perhaps after World War III when they remain the only survivors, will they automatically attain godhood the way we have abrogated it to our own species. Maneka Gandhi is the chairperson of 'People for Animals 'and a Minister in the Government of India. The above article first appeared in Swagat, January 2002. MIKE TURNER June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 51 Jain Education Intemational Page #54 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ HISTORY OwWW.DINODU.COM CAN WOMEN ACHI Padmanabh Jaini contrasts the Digambara and Shvetambara views on the liberation of women A Digambara nun at Bahubali, Karnataka, India HE SALVATION OR SPIRITUAL LIBERATION OF WOMEN HAS been a matter of great controversy between the two major sects of Jainism, the Digambaras and the Shvetambaras. The former have vehemently insisted that one cannot attain moksha, emancipation of the soul from the cycles of birth and death (samasara) as a female, while the latter have steadfastly refused to claim the exclusively male access to the liberated state (Arhat or Siddha) of the soul. The beginning of the feud between the two sects, which eventually split the Jain society into two hostile camps, is itself shrouded in mystery. No one has yet been able to ascertain with any precision either the direct cause of the division or the dates of the initial controversy. Both traditions agree, however, that the final breach took place around 300 B.C. during the time of the Venerable Bhadrabahu, a contemporary of Emperor Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty. Since that time the two sects have refused to accept the validity of each other's scriptures; indeed, the Digambaras have even claimed that the original words of Mahavir were irrevocably lost. In addition, the adherents of both sects refuse to recognise their rival's religion as true mendicants (muni or sadhu), setting up a debate that tears at the very fabric of the entire Jain community. One of the major issues dividing the two sects was the acceptability of ordained persons wearing clothes. While this might seem to us moderns as a trivial issue on which to base what was to become a major sectarian dispute, the debate did mask basic concerns in Jain soteriology that were hardly frivolous. On one point there was unanimity: the last great teacher (known by the title of Jina or spiritual victor) of their religion, Vardhamana Mahavir, who lived from 599 to 527 B.C. according to the tradition, had been a naked ascetic (acelaka sramana) and some of his early adherents had been similarly 'sky-clad' (digambara) and known as jinakalpins (similar to the Jina). But this was the extent of the consensus. The Digambaras, who went naked (nagna) following Mahavir's example, claimed that a mendicant must renounce all property or possessions (parigraha) including clothes; the only exceptions allowed were a small whisk broom (rajoharana) for brushing insects away from one's seat and a water gourd (kamandalu) for toilet purposes. They therefore accepted only naked monks as the true mendicant adherents of the Jina and regarded the Shvetambara monks, who continued to wear white clothes (sveta-ambara) after ordination, as no better than celibate laymen (brahmacar-grhastha). Nudity thus became for the Digambaras the fundamental identifying feature (munilinga) of the mendicant life. They maintained that without 52 Jain Spirit . June - August 2002 Jain Education Interational Page #55 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ EVE LIBERATION? undertaking at least that modicum of practice, one could not hope to attain the most exalted of states, moksha or nirvana. clothes in strict accordance with the prohibition against nudity, they were on equal footing with the monks and were granted the full status of mendicancy. More importantly, women were thus considered eligible to attain moksha in that very female body - a prospect possible to any nun who was sufficiently adept spiritually. Moksha was therefore based not on biological condition but on spiritual development alone. The Shvetambaras, of course, conceded that Mahavir adopted the practice of nudity (acelaka), but they regarded the renunciation of clothes for monks as optional, somewhat similar to the practice of austerities such as fasting which was hardly mandatory though entirely commendable. However, the Shvetambara position became increasingly intransigent until the leaders of the sect came to claim that clothes were an integral part of the holy life and that they were the only true mendicants because they wore clothes. As the debate became more inflammatory, the Shvetambaras resorted to eschatological arguments to justify their claim: the practice of nudity, commendable during the time of Mahavir himself, was no longer advisable in this degenerate age. Their scriptures related that soon after Mahavir's death the practice of nudity became extinct. Its revival was deemed inappropriate during the subsequent period in a It would be appropriate to ask if these debates have any relevance to those men and women who are actually engaged in practising the Jain mendicant discipline. The precise number of monks and nuns within the two Jain sects is not known. Modern attempts to estimate this have yielded a figure of some twenty-five hundred monks and as many as six thousand nuns. The percentage of Digambara mendicants is quite small: no more than a hundred naked monks (munis) and probably even fewer nuns (aryikas). The fashion reminiscent of the kalivarjya practices - or those once legitimate but now condemned -- in the Hindu law books. The Shvetambaras therefore considered the Digambaras heretics for rejecting the authenticity of their canon (agama), especially for defying the canonical injunctions against nudity and for showing disrespect to the large mendicant order of the whiteclad Shvetambara monks who were following the prescribed practice of the sthavirakalpa - being clothed and being a member of the ecclesiastical community. With the overriding importance for the Digambaras that was attached to nudity, it is no surprise that clothes came to occupy a central position in the debates on the possible salvation of women as well. For reasons that were never specifically stated, even the Digambaras did not grant women permission to practise nudity under any circumstances and insisted that women wear clothes. This injunction effectively barred women from ever renouncing all possessions and, accordingly, from attaining moksha in that life. Female mendicants, called noble or venerable ladies (aryikas or sadhvis), were technically not considered mendicants at all but simply celibate, albeit spiritually advanced laywomen (utkrstasravika) - a status similar to the one which the Digambaras were willing to accord to the Shvetambara monks. The Shvetambaras, on the other hand, did not consider clothes a possession but rather an indispensable component of religious life (dharma-upakarana). Therefore, even though nuns wore Can Women Achieve Liberation? "One of the major issues dividing the two sects was the acceptability of ordained persons wearing clothes." remainder are all within the Shvetambara community. I conducted a casual inquiry a few years ago among small groups of these nuns in the areas of Kathiawad in Gujarat and the Marwad in Rajasthan. It revealed that the majority of them came from the affluent merchant castes, such as the Srimalis or the Oswals. Almost half of them were unmarried and had entered the mendicant life at a very young age (some even at the age of nine) and in many cases they were recruited into the order by a female member of their own family such as an aunt or sister who had been ordained earlier in a similar manner. In contrast, most Digambara nuns I met were widows before entering the order and with a few notable exceptions are less effective guides and teachers in their lay communities than their Shvetambara sisters. One cannot fail to conclude that the rejection of liberation of women might in some way have led to the lack of enthusiasm for asceticism among Digambara women, discouraging them from actively pursuing the vocation of nuns. The above article is extracted from 'Gender and Salvation: Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women' by Padmanabh S. Jaini (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, pp1-30.) This book is regarded as one of the most important modern contributions to Jain knowledge and understanding. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 53 Page #56 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ PHILOSOPHY THE RELATIVES OF RELATIVITY Jason Brett Serle examines anekantvada and finds echoes in the thinking of modern scientists and linguists eating a cake, we may get differing comments: "It is so smooth and creamy!" says one child. "It is crunchy and tastes of chocolate!" says the other. Taken by themselves these two statements seem to contradict one another but the fact is that one has taken a bite from the top and the other from the bottom of the same cake. Anekantvada embraces contradiction by recognising Jason Brett-Serle that any and every statement contains a partial truth. It THEN THE PRESSURES IN THE EARTH'S CRUST REACH A accepts all and denies none and, at the same time, avoids the critical point, mountains are formed. When the same rigidity and arrogance of dogma by the recognition that no critical point is reached with regard to the amount of idea or philosophy can express the Whole Truth and this water vapour contained in a cloud, the result is rain. These includes its own. things occur across the entire face of our globe: arising and Philosophy when used as pure speculation is devoid of passing away independent of each other any true meaning for if it does not and doing so for as long as suitable affect our lives in any way then what conditions exist for their occurrence. It is "Too often, we purpose can it be said to have? My much the same for the thoughts and own attraction to Jain thought and its philosophies of mankind. mistake the map for the doctrine of many-sidedness is due to Anekantvada or the doctrine of its practicality and its ability to lead manifold aspects, often translated as us to the recognition of a greater unity 'many-sidedness' or 'relative pluralism behind an apparent diversity. For me constitutes the fundamental basis of all it is the application of philosophy that philosophical discourse amongst the a symbol, determines its true value to any Jains. It is the foundation upon which the individual or society and not merely greater part of Jain thought stands. As all a representation." the elegance of its construction or the other aspects of Jain philosophy are proofs that it appears to demonstrate; subject to the perspectives provided by for anything can be proven to be true this doctrine, it would be more accurate to refer to it as a when the information required for its refutal has been metaphilosophy or 'philosophy of philosophy'. It functions in omitted. I have never been attracted to any philosophy of much the same way as the telescope to the astronomer in the absolutism for this very reason. If I were to say, "This is the sense that no thought or thing can be accurately viewed without Truth. There is no other!" then the result of this would be to it. Its most basic tenet is that Reality is multi-faceted. Any one create a division between myself and all those who do not thing can be seen from many different points of view that share my view. In my mind, any separation is an arbitrary are often so different from one another as to appear to be one and the view of the absolutist is as absurd as the flower contradictory. No one statement or philosophy can contain the thinking itself to be in some way more valid than the leaf Whole and so we can see that what it must be expressing, is not through its failure to recognise the plant! The practicality of the Whole, but is a part of that Whole. For example, when anekantvada is acceptance and not denial, unification and territory. It is merely 54 Jain Spirit. June - August 2002 Page #57 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Relatives of Relativity not separation, and although it might be said that I have denied bravery would more probably leave them laughing at my the view of the absolutist as absolutely true, I have also cowardliness, although the symbols used were common to accepted their view as partially true. Whichever way one us both. Just because a word is understood, it does not mean chooses to look at it, the practical result - if I am truly living by that there is an overlap of the experience of what that word the implications of anekantvada - is that even the absolutist is represents. If this situation can occur with such concrete embraced, his views respected and accepted as valid. On the entities as dogs then what of such abstractions as 'love' or part of the Jain, there does not exist the division that is caused "god"? The term syat or 'in some respects' is of particular by thinking another's view to be wrong, as the apparent contra- interest as Korzybski advocated the use of similar terms to diction is seen as the natural result of relativity and nothing replace the use of the verb 'to be'. He writes: "Any more. proposition containing the word 'is' creates a linguistic In the Agama texts, Mahavir explains that any entity can be structural confusion which will eventually give birth to expressed in many different ways in accordance to its location, serious fallacies." Instead he suggested the use of it seems time and mode but it was not until a later date that this idea was to me' or 'from my point of view', 'I feel', 'I believe' or 'it formulated into a system that is often referred to as syadvada appears' so as to communicate the relativity of any meaning 'statements in some respect' (vada meaning statement and avoid the errors caused by the use of 'statement' and syat meaning 'in some respect'). Some two absolutes. thousand years later on the other side of the world, Science and By about the fourth century the Jains had developed the Sanity was published by one Alfred Korzybski, who dealt with idea of syadvada into a sevenfold system of logic known as many of the issues of syadvada. Although much of it has a very sapta-bhangi-naya or 'sevenfold predication', which was close affinity with Jain thought, it appears to have arisen referred to during philosophical discussion so as to establish independently from it and makes no the viewpoint that the speaker had mention of any such sources as the basis chosen to adopt at any one time. The for its ideas. Its main focus is the "Any absolute is a seven statements are formulated from limitations imposed upon us by language the permutations of three and, in particular, the habitual language fundamental postulates - affirmation, structures that lead to fallacies in both negation and inexpressibility. They thought and communication. Korzybski are as follows: was the founder of General Semantics, a system that sought to rectify these errors through the adoption 1) syad-asti in some respects it is of, and adherence to, a language that more closely correlates 2) syad-nasti in some respects it is not with the real world. 3) syad-asti-nasti in some respects it is and it is not 'The map is not the territory' was one of the phrases he 4) syad-avaktavya in some respects it is inexpressible often used to communicate the fundamental principle of 5) syad-asti avaktava in some respects it is and is inexpressible General Semantics and it represents for me a simple yet 6) syad-nasti avaktavya in some respects it is not and is inexpressible profound realisation. Too often we take the symbol and what 7) syad-asti-nasti avaktavya in some respects it is and is not and is inexpressible the symbol represents to be one and the same thing, leading us to the belief that symbols are in some way Real when in fact When I first came upon this sevenfold system of logic, I they only represent that which is Real. The letters d-o-g have recognised many similarities with the views propounded by absolutely no relation to a small furry animal save that which a the world of modern physics and in particular the work of small group of us have given to them. If these letters possessed Albert Einstein whose Theory Of Relativity revolutionised an inherent quality of their own then surely there would be the scientific method in general. The apparent conflict of some special relationship between a dog and a god that no other how something can be' and 'not be' has perhaps found its thing would share. Although I personally would assert that clearest example in the dilemma faced by physicists when dogs are in many ways godly, I think we can see that this has attempting to describe the most elementary quanta of our nothing to do with the letters that make up the words. Another universe. At times these minute entities appear to behave as group of people has chosen the letters p-e-r-r-o to represent the particles whilst at other times they seem to be more like same thing and yet another, c-h-i-e-n, and all of this is confined waves. As a result, in a brave attempt to transcend the to one alphabet when there are in fact hundreds. Having first contradiction that they present us with, they are often recognised the distinction between the symbol and that which it referred to as wavicles. The fundamental difference is that represents, we must then consider the gulfs that separate each a particle 'is' in the sense that it exists as a measurable piece person's experience of the thing in question. If I were to of manifest matter whereas a wave 'is not' due to its being recount an incident of a savage attack by a dog to someone who nothing more than an immaterial pattern of energy which is had only ever seen a chihuahua in their whole lives, then the neither solidly manifest nor accurately measurable. In the effect of my tale, instead of communicating my courage and quantum realm all we know to be solid and tangible is belief that has not yet been transcended." ; June - August 2002. Jain Spirit 55 Jain Education Intemational Page #58 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ PHILOSOPHY The Relatives of Relativity NEW BOOK: ANEKANTA - THE THIRD EYE By Acharya Mahaprajna Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, Email: [email protected] nothing more than a dance of energy whose stability and solidity is only a result of our relative position within it. The fourth proposition of inexpressibilty results from an attempt to conceive of these two propositions simultaneously. My final comment is on another great scientist whose grasp on the realms of relativity could be said to have emerged from his work on the most subjective of all objects -- the human brain, and in particular his own experience of it from within. His name is John Cunningham Lilly and his work in the field of interspecies communication with dolphins and whales has contributed a great deal to the prevailing recognition of these creatures as intelligent beings. He was also the inventor of the floatation tank - a valuable tool for deep relaxation and contemplation and when talking of his own experiences in the tank, he would often use the phrase "as if in much the same way as the Jains use 'in some respects so as to communicate the relativity of their experience and escape the fallacies of absolutes. To Dr. Lilly any absolute was merely a belief that had not yet been transcended. This idea that the relativist imposes no boundaries upon themselves and is therefore at liberty to learn and expand their consciousness indefinitely is expressed in the following excerpt taken from his book Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer. "In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true, is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further heliefs to be transcended. In the mind there are no limits." 42 Anekanta, The Third Eye, is Acharya Mahaprajna's eloquent exposition of Mahavir's teachings. He reveals the essence of Jainism to truth-seekers in this book, discussing the metaphysics of anekanta in terms of its practical application. He relates elegant stories to highlight the role of anekanta in understanding fundamental concepts like co-existence, equanimity, balance and optimistic perception. He writes: "Anekanta is an eye. With the two physical eyes man is able to see the gross world, but is not able to see or ANEKANTA understand the inner world. THE THIRD EYE What is the other person or nation thinking? Where, why and in what state is he thinking? What is he doing? Acharya Mahaprajna When is he doing what he is doing? How is he doing what he is doing? And in what state is he while saying what he is saying? Unless these factors are known, understood and lain Vishya Bharati Institute evaluated, justice can neither be meted out nor can the 32eeeee changes that take place in the material world be understood.,, Jason Brett Serle lives in London, and is fond of philosophical enquiry. www.joinspiril.org JAIN SPIRIT JAIN SPIRIT Gift Vouchers Stuck for the perfect gift? Why not buy a book of gift vouchers of Jain Spirit which consists of ten, one year subscriptions. Each book costs PS100/$150 and the vouchers can be used at anytime. The recipient of such a gift will remember the sender at least 4 times a year. To order your book of vouchers, all you have to do is fill out the enclosed subscription form and tick the "Please send me ten gift vouchers" box. www.jainspirit.org Pantone blu is bar Layunin indb Jugen Stra o do is fill out the enclosed 56 Jain Spirit . 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If you want to become a catalyst for peace and would like to help spread Jain Spirit then please e-mail [email protected], write to 14 Cowdray Office Centre, Cowdray Avenue, Colchester, CO1 1QB or telephone us on +44 (0)1206 500037. June-August 2002 Jain Spirit 63 Page #66 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ VIEWPOINT SELF-PUBLISHING IS DAMAGING Bookseller and exporter of Jain books Manish Modi argues that the quality of our publications is deteriorating Manish Modi THE WORLD IS FULL OF DISEASES! THERE IS MALARIA, This is clearly a high-profit business for the publishers of 1 typhoid, cancer, AIDS and so many others. But there such writers. These books are invariably purchased in is another disease to which many people are prone to thousands by the followers of that particular Guru and - self-publishing (Chhapavano Rog)! This is a peculiar what's worse, they are rarely read. They are either affliction! Its symptoms are compunction for seeing one's distributed freely or dumped away, purchased only to please name as the author on book covers and to have several the author or as a favour to earn punya. Entire tracts are books under one's name. Quality goes out of the window lifted from earlier books and used without any acknowland quantity is the only criteria. This disease is a very grave edgement to the author of the original piece. Besides, the one. It compels man to lay waste to reams and reams of cover and the page layout are often copied from other paper, and acres of forests are lost as trees are felled for books, usually foreign ones. What is really galling is that making paper. Gallons of printers' ink are wasted! despite all this wholesale lifting the end product usually In India, there are a large number of saints who have lacks quality and depth. each written more than twenty to thirty books in half a Books are not the only thing that are being released by decade. An equally large number of self-styled scholars the hundreds. Jain calendars, audio and video cassettes and have been busy publishing dozens of books in a short time. picture books are also being made. In India alone, there are As a bookseller, I am very concerned about the quality and hundreds of Jain newsletters and journals, most of which the intellectual contribution of their writing. Of course, are struggling to survive, but they still continue to be writers who have depth, and have spent a number of years published. In all these areas, I feel there is an urgent need studying Jainism, disseminating information in an for care and professionalism, and we need some good Jain organised fashion are welcome to write. They write for publishing enterprises to ensure this. Jain Sanskrit established publishing companies like Oxford University Sanrakshak Sangh in Sholapur, Bharatiya Gyanpith and Press, Routledge, Bharatiya Gyanpith, Jain Sanskrit Motilal Banarsidass in Delhi are excellent examples but Sanrakshak Sangh or Motilal Banarsidass. These they specialise in scholarly material. There is an urgent publishers get the books professionally refereed before they need for good quality books in English which make Jainism are accepted for publication. In this way there is quality accessible to different audiences: children, students and control and a book is vetted for its contribution to existing their parents. There are very few good Jain storybooks in knowledge. Unfortunately, no such controls exist for self- English available today. As the scarce resources are tied up published books. in self-publishing and duplication, the needs of the day are It has been my observation that unless you are a rare not fulfilled. There is an appalling paucity of solid research genius, writing a good book can take years and years! The work based on the Agamas. In the early twentieth century, best works have been written by ancient masters like there were many scholars doing pioneering work on Acharya Kundakunda or Acharya Hemachandra, who fully scriptures in both the Digambara and the Shvetambara lived the life of a Jain ascetic or layman, and learnt Jainism traditions. But this well of knowledge seems to have dried at the feet of their spiritual masters. Their scholarly up in modern India. It is left to international scholars like treatises helped us interpret the wisdom of Bhagwan Dr. John E. Cort, Dr. Paul Dundas and Dr. Nalini Balbir (to Mahavir. name a few) to carry the torch of Jain scholarship Modern day self-published books often suffer from inaccuracy, poor language, poor grammar and a host of Manish Modi continues the family tradition in his bookshop spelling mistakes. Printing is often also poor and the in Mumbai, the Hindi Granth Karyalay and is very active in money spent on publishing such books is exorbitantly high! discussing Jainism on the Internet. 64 Jain Spirit * June - August 2002 Page #67 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ ATMA VALLABH SANSKRITI MANDIR (NEW DELHI) TUTMAN INTE Jaya Travel and Tours Chicago 2367 West Peterson Avenue, Chicago, IL 60659 Tel: 773-878-0300 Fax: 773-878-7543 Email: [email protected] Chicago 104 South Michigan Avenue Suite 1425 Chicago, IL 60603 Tel: 312-606-9600 Fax: 312-606-0925 Email: [email protected] Madras Sindur Plaza, Suite 1, 3rd Floor, 42 Monteith Road, Egmore, Chennai 600008 Tel: (44) 851-4219 Fax: (44) 855-4593 Email: [email protected] Bombay Rizvi House 34 Hill Road Bandra (W), Bombay 400050 Tel: (22) 642-3031 Fax: (22) 642-6421 Email: [email protected] THIS PAGE IS SPONSORED BY: Detroit 26500 Northwestern Highway Suite 260 Southfield, MI 48076 Tel: 248-358-9100 Fax: 248-372-4810 Email: [email protected] New York Lincoln Building 60 East 42nd St., Suite 1406 New York, NY 10165 Tel: 212-697-0022 Fax: 212-697-0089 Email: [email protected] Los Angeles Sky Bird Travel & Tours 360 N. Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 2050 El Segundo CA 90245 Tel: (310) 647-3400 Fax: (310) 647-5800 Email: [email protected] Washington 3913 Old Lee Highway Suite 32B Fairfax, VA 22030 Tel: 703-934-8999 Fax: 703-934-8157 Also visit us at www.jayatravel.com Page #68 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ WWW WORLD-WIDE WEB WWW JOX BBC - Religion & Ethics - Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edit View Favontes Tools Help Tools Heb . 0 A Address Links >>| BBCI CATEGORIES TV RADIO COMUNICATE WHERE LIVE INDEX SEARCH TUESDAY 16th April 2002 Text only RELIGION www.learn.co.uk This is the Guardian Newspaper s education website and useful for British children preparing for school or practicing questions and exams. It is very detailed and comprehensive and will help you get good grades! It is integrated to the UK national curriculum, so will not be directly relevant for students outside the UK. ETHICS The Hindu Kingdom of Nepal Thought for the Day BBC Homepage Religion & Ethics Nepal With Angela Tilby Nepal is the only officially Hindu state in the world but what does this mean? Elements of both Hinduism and Buddhism have become intermingled in Nepal. Read more >> DOC RADIO 4 News Religions Ethics News Programmes E-cards Multifaith Calendar Message Board What's On About this site BBC Religion Links Shinto The indigenous religion of Japan. 17 18 19 Multifaith a calendar 24 25 26 Dates of festivals for six major faiths. 3y po Video Nation Short films about people's beliefs. Video/audio Religious news from around the world: Pope calls summit over priest sex scandal * Sikhs lobby MPs over identity - Nuns to sell historic abbey as recruits fall my BBC Prayer Calculator Calculate prayer times for most UK locations. Prayer for the day Early morning reflection. Newsletter Contact Us Spring Equinox Pagan festival celebrating new life. Help Sign up for the Religion & Ethics newsletter E-cards Send a religious e-card. How moral are you? Ethics quiz. Message Board www.oneworld.net So-called developing countries find it very difficult to get a fair hearing -- the news is either of poverty, war or hunger. This is a large and unique site where we can read about the truth from their side and not from western tainted perspectives. This is a very useful site for students doing essays or research on events in different parts of the world, especially relating to social justice. How fair is world trade? Is third world poverty a result of economic slavery and colonialism by the western world? Jains should be concerned about issues of social justice as they affect the lives of people all over the world. One world is a joint venture between over 1000 organisations working for equality and social justice for all people on the planet. Like this page? Send it to a friend! Discuss religious and ethical issues on the message board. Islam Ethies Religions Topical ethical issues and debate Internet MIKE TURNER ART)) MATHS www.bbc.co.uk .. BUT I'VE This is the BBC s main website, and one of the most popular and FORGOTTEN informative free websites in the world. The knowledge and wisdom HOW TO of the BBC journalists can be accessed through this site, which also has audio for radio broadcasts, and some TV footage too. The BBC PLAY, DAD! is one of the oldest media organisations in the world and one of the best. The whole family can find a home in this site, and use it to search on a variety of topics from food and health to religion and ALGEBRA spirituality. In comparison to this site, all Jain websites look very OGRAPHN tiny. For kids working on school essays, this site can provide useful facts and figures, which they can quote. In addition, there is vast PHYSICS information about adult education. There are separate sections for SIC) FRENCH children, teens, music, arts, and lifestyle. Go in and browse for yourself! SDPOCZY JAIN SPIRIT MICS www.jainspirit.org Jain Spirit, 14 Cowdray Office Centre, Covery Avenue, Colchester, UK COI Q3 Telephone : +44 (0) 1206 500037 "Don't miss your personal copy - subscribe today" www.jainspirit. [email protected] PUBLISHED IN THE UK - ISSN: 1532-0472 SENAT Jain Education internatione Pat & Personal use