Development And Impact Of Jainism In India And Abroad

Author(s): Gunvant Barvalia
Publisher: Arham Spiritual Center

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THE ISSUE OF SVETAMBARA AAGAMAS IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
rooted in the present Indian context, recalling those of the Amar Chitra Katha or of mythological TV serials, and the same Jain team has initiated the parallel Jain Diwakar Chitra Katha. Imagination and realism skilfully combine. For instance, a number of plates have a clearly didactic perspective, interpreting words referring to material culture in terms of explicit images. Through the depiction of the violent and the gruesome, or, on the contrary, of the peaceful and the serene, they involve the reader directly, helping him to feel the process of karma and rebirths, the torments of hells, or the blissful happiness of mok?a. The distance and awe which Ardhamagadhi and canonical phraseology could create is discretly abolished; in most favourable cases, the characters of canonical narratives come close to 21st century men and women who are helped to see analogies between their situations and those of the past, instead of considering the texts as foreign to their own environment. This edition thus represents an integrated pedagogical approach to the Agamas with an efficacious use of religious art.
The latest initiative resulting from acute awareness of the relevance of the Agamic message in our globalized world goes to Shri Namramuni, a dynamic Sthanakvasin monk trained in science, who plans the publication of all the Agamas with reliable Hindi and English translations, based on solid terminological grounds ('Jain Aagam Mission'). At the beginning of the teaser book (Agama. An Introduction) published a few months ago, the author indirectly seems to acknowledge the fact that new ways have to be found to keep the Agamas alive:
'Ancient Jain Monks have made many efforts to keep the Agamas intact and edited, researched, modified, and abridged the meanings of Agama to keep the divine knowledge abreast with times, hence making an immense contribution to humanity' (p. 3). Interestingly, for each of the 32 Agamas the text and English translation of a selected sutra or group of verses are provided, followed by a brief description of the purport of the work in point. The analysis of the seventh Anga, the Uvasagadasao, for instance, stresses the relevance of this work for today's Jains. They are not so far from the ten rich laypeople whose lifesketches are related there. The author's reading grid stresses the implications of the sutras in spiritual terms and explains how they contribute to the path of purification of the soul or selfrealization. Another prevalent concern is to read them in relation with modern science ('Jain Agama in context to science: psychology, biology, environment, mind, speech and body (yoga), p. 107-116).
Different or complementary as they are, initiatives meant to spread knowledge of the Agamas show how the richness of their contents lends itself to multiple readings and how leading Jain monastic figures in the 20th-21st centuries see their own role as essential in the process of diffusion.
References
This brief note is partly based on the two following articles (in the press) where all necessary bibliographical information has been included: 'On the role and meaning of the Svetambara Canon in the history of Jainism' in Peter Flügel (ed.), Jaina Law, London, Routledge. 'Old Texts, New Images. Illustrating Svetambara Agamas today' in Julia Hegewald (ed.), In the Shadow of the Golden Age. Proceedings of the International Conference organized in Bonn, November 2011.
Moreover:
Yug Diwakar Pujya Gurudev Shree Namramuni M.S. Agama. An Introduction. Ed. Gunvant Barvalia, Global Jain Aagam Mission, Mumbai, October 2012, 116 pages. [The 32 Agamas are: 11 Angas and 12 Upangas; 4 Mulasutras: Dasavai kalika-sutra, Uttaradhyayana", Nandi", Auyogadvara"; 4 Chedasutras: Nisitha-sutra, Dasasrutaskandha", Brahatkalpa", Vyavahara"; plus Avasyaka-sutra). ***
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