JAINA Convention 2005 07 JCNC

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 93

• An inherent and unconditional belief in Anekantvaad is the most fundamental requirement. The community members and leaders must recognize and equally respect every tradition's views. The processes, rites and rituals of one tradition may be different from the other, but none is wrong. All members must be respectful of the differences.
All traditions have non-negotiable and irrevocably equal rights to Jain Bhawan irrespective of the number of people belonging to a tradition.
* Members conducting activities in one tradition are cognizant and respectful of the others.
The most The priest is required to be familiar with all traditions and their rites and rituals. He/she supports and assists all religious events irrespective of the tradition and
important style.
aspect is the All JCNC sponsored festivals and events address needs of all traditions. Members are not asked to disclose their tradition, and everyone is encouraged
discipline and to participate in every event.
commitment of Religious leaders (monk, nuns and scholar) are requested and instructed not to speak negatively about any tradition. They can point out the differences but may the leaders and not denigrate any differences.
The most important aspect is the discipline and commitment of the leaders me members to and the members to promote unselfish cooperation. The purpose is not to force the
promote members to integrate by losing their identity, but to facilitate co-existence. There is nothing wrong if one wants to continue practicing the religion in a tradition one unselfish grew up with, since it is due to ones lifelong conditioning, and we should not discourage or disparage that. However, the emphasis should be on respecting, adopting
cooperation. and learning ways that are new to us. To that end, at JCNC all traditions are encour- The purpose is aged to follow their traditions while participating in others, and encouraging others to follow theirs.
not to force the The above points are applicable to language or region based issues as effectively as
members to to they are to the sectarian issues. Outside of India, one key difference and implied
integrate by advantage in the case of language and regional issues is the existence of widely used languages - Hindi and English which are fairly ubiquitous among the first generation losing their Jains, and English as the common language between second and subsequent generations. With time, as next generations become more active, the regional differences
identity, but to will dissipate because of English being the common language, and the cultural plat
facilitate form will be wider as it will be an amalgamated superset of regional cultures. However, as a community we need to put much higher emphasis than we have done co-existence so far on creating Jain literature with western context so it appeals to those growing up outside of India. The new literature needs to take the best of all traditions and present Jain philosophy, principles and other relevant information that is universal in
nature.
tending Jain Her
in Heritage in Weste
? Western Environme
07 www.jainelibrary.org
vironment