ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

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modern appliances like refrigerators and freezers, water purifying systems (like RO), food articles being made and sold by large corporations, legal restriction imposed by government on labeling the food for its content, use of preservatives for enhancing shelf life etc can be acceptable for adoption. Most of the Jain texts found in temples and homes having (devotional hymns (pūjās)11, meditational hymns (sāmāyikas) and essential duties of householders (āvaśayakas) have a list of edible things, the impact of their mixing with each other and their shelf life. Section 6.0 gives some sample food articles and their shelf life.
4.0 Vegetarian diet The Jain diet is claimed to be strictly vegetarian, perhaps vegan but relaxed to contain dairy products also (lacto vegetarians) provided they are produced using non-violent methods. Most of the restaurants and other high end restaurants and food serving organizations present special Jain menus i.e. vegetarian food without root vegetables like onion, garlic, potatoes etc. However certain root vegetables like turmeric, ginger and garlic in dried and powdered form are acceptable for their medicinal qualities. Animal products or those products made by using even small quantities of animal products are forbidden (e.g. processed cheese using animal based rennet, cereals or medicines using honey/ bone ash or other such things, ice creams using eggs). Here again the method of preparing, consuming sātvika food in limited quantities and times and eating before sunset or after sunrise, so as to avoid contamination of food with mosquitoes and insects are emphasized. Jain restriction of not eating after sunset is based on a number of scientific and medical basis as well, like allowing enough time for the food to digest and not eating food with insects/mosquitoes etc falling in the food in bad light and disinfecting properties of sun light.
11 Pujā Pātha Pradipa, Sāmāyika kā Saundarya, compiled by Dr. Mukesh Jain
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
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