Jains Today in World

SR No.: 001794
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Pirre Paul AMIEL
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, History, Religion, E000, & E005
File Size: 24 MB

Page 77

46 : JAINS TODAY IN THE WORLD
• The "Upādhyāya” (Religious Teachers)
The "Great Mantra” also mentions the Jain religious teachers or “Upādhyāya “ who are Doctors in Jain philosophy and who instruct novices and “Muni”. They are also considered and respected in daily life.
•
The "Sādhu" and "Sādhvi” (Monks and Nuns)
Jain “sādhu” (monks) and "sādhvi" (nuns) are ascetics who have renounced everything for their faith and who make extremely great and valorous efforts to remove all the “karma” from their soul and so to attain liberation at their death. We will see in chapter 9, the lives of these men and women who, after they have been admitted to a religious order, endure the most severe disciplines, especially the Digambara monks who have reached the highest level of detachment.
Jain laities consider “Ācārya”, “Upādhyāya”, “Sādhu” and “Sadhvi" as "saints" on the way to liberation. Many lay adepts want to follow the footsteps of those they admire, who have treaded this path, hoping that after an active life they will be able to live like them. Young Jains may enter into a group of monks or nuns as novices and live under the guidance of a “guru” or of a “guruņi” as we have already said. This wandering existence of self-sacrifice and mortifications is not possible to everybody; some are reluctantly obliged to give up. Others follow the way progressively and may someday become themselves “guru” or “guruņi" and later on “Ācārya," if they are judged able. These "guru” and “guruņi” study and teach adepts and novices the fundamental tenets of Jainism. They follow and direct each moment of the novice's life. Novices who do not respect the rules may suffer temporary or even permanent exclusion by the “Ācārya" they live under. Those that persevere may one day progress so far as to become “Ācārya" to teach and lead both novices and ascetics.