Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 84

The Unknown Pilgrims
or other and even though the renouncing of sin and the effort to purify their thoughts, words and bodily activities occupy an important position in their life, this renouncing and this purification are not ends in themselves, for the goal towards which they are striving is union with God, a union which is achieved in Love in their capacity as daughters of God and brides of Christ.82
64
The voice of the Sadhvis, unknown pilgrims
At the beginning of her biography of her guruņi, Mahāsati Śri Sarală expresses both a sorrow and a hope; a sorrow in taking note of the fact that over nearly two thousand years, whereas the Jaina sages have written many valuable works, sadhvis have scarcely received any mention in them and almost nothing is known in their regard. The Mahāsati very properly refuses to believe that there have not been during the course of the centuries some remarkable sadhvis, as capable of renunciation as their muni counterparts. The hope of the Mahāsati is, she declares, that in our day and age some researchers may interest themselves in this subject.83 The present study is an attempt to respond to this challenge and, although the Mahāsati was thinking primarily of a historical survey, this present study includes all the aspects of their life; indeed it accords a very considerable place to the sadhvis of our own day who collaborated in it in a direct way.
The voice of the Sadhvis
Natutally we need to listen to what fervent sadhvis, trained in their own tradition, say and write, or would like to say and write, if they were able. In order to be able to communicate widely they would have to:
enjoy greater freedom within their own communities,
have some possibilities of open communication with those outside their own tradition,
-
82 They also aim at becoming nirgranthis, but with a different objective.
83 Cf. Mahāsati Saralā, 1970, Part II, pp. 8-9. It is a pity that the extensive thesis of Deo, 1956, on the history of Jaina monasticism has remained a University publication and that of Bordiya, 1975, on certain learned sadhvis and śrāvikās has not been published. Up to date the sadhvis do not know them.