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CHAPTER V
THE PRACTICE OF RELIGION
Americans & Europeans have tended to show enthusiasm for absorbing Jain philosophy in day-to-day life quite apart from subscribing to its basic principles and philosophy. They find that the two are inseparable. Jain ritual is something so new and yet so simple and uncomplicated for them to practise within the confineness of their physical capacity and will power. It is also facilitated because Jain religious practices are basically turned to mental and physical discipline, and there is also flexibility in the matter of degree of austerity or renunciation a person is willing or prepared to commit himself/herself to. There is also no blind-belief oriented mumbo jumbo about observance of Jain religion.
What is interesting is that a lot of interest has been aroused for observing Jain religion through recital of Namokar Mantra and other prayers and bhajans, observance of fasts, meditation, practising and preaching vegetarianism, organising vegetarian projects, listening to videotapes of discourses, (given by Gurudev at the Jain congregations at various Jain International Meditation Centres in New York and elsewhere in USA and Canada), yoga practice, celebrating Paryushan Parva together, observing the festival of Forgiveness and grasping its essence, nursing not only ailing human beings but also sick and wounded animals and birds, undertaking
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