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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
harmony, but places where thought has to be pure, where the thought atmosphere has to remain pure - where things are only done and spoken and thought on a level which is above everyday thought and emotion. This is not an illusion. Sacredness is an actuality, which can be felt, and which has to be preserved at all cost, which serves a far greater purpose than the mood of the visitor alone. I feel that sacred places of particular types are connected and form a protective web around the world, the value of which is far beyond what the eye and mind of a curious tourist who has not trained himself in purity and devotion can perceive.
Brahmāchārini
I received a phone call from the temple of Sanganer. A very special learned person whom I should absolutely meet had arrived and who was to stay for a while only. So again I made the bone-shaking bus journey to Sanganer. Instead of the eminently dressed gentleman I had imagined, a white-clad female figure appeared before my eye when I was led into a small, almost dark room. Immediately we were friends: we had that feeling of familiarity and friendship that happens only a few times in one's life. Her white cotton, not entirely clean sari, indicated that she was a nun, or more correctly a brahmāchārinī, bound by many voluntarily taken vows. Her English was almost perfect, and she even spoke some German. We had a short talk, but she had to leave soon. Brahmāchārinī (as I will call her), rarely stays in one place for long. She goes from one sacred place to another, from one site of pilgrimage to another. But she strongly urged me to meet her at Jaipur railway station at three o'clock. She didn't have to tell me twice, because she was intelligent, entertaining and extremely enthusiastic about her archeological research. At the station I proposed that we went to the station's restaurant to continue our talk about philosophy, science and Jainism over a snack and a drink. I ordered. She wanted nothing. She
took a bottle of water from her luggage, though water was Jain Education International
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