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JAINA CONVENTION 2017
The Jaina Way of Life:
Symphony in Ethics, Ecology and Environment
By Shikha Dev Senior Program Manager, American Airlines
Shikha Dev is Senior Program Manager with American Airlines. Besides being passionate about job, I am also a spiritually inclined person and on the board of 2017 YJP ( Young Jain Professionals).
ABSTRACT: The world is facing serious challenges of ethical deficits in social, political and business moorings leading to regional tensions and increasing incidences of terror attacks. Not to mention the social costs, expenditure on military and security runs into a few trillion US$ per year. If only a part of it could be diverted to fight poverty, hunger, malnutrition and diseases, the world will be better off. Luxurious lifestyle among the rich and increasing population in developing countries are exasperating the biocapacity of our planet. Already, the global mean ecological footprint is 2.6 global hectares per capita. The pace with which we are facing the depletion of biodiversity and environmental degradation is a matter of grave concern. Under the given scenario, time-tested Jain values and practices are advocated as a sure cure for these maladies. Even though, no systematic study has been carried out, the lifestyle of Jains, for instance, when converted into per capita ecological footprint using the online calculator (http://ecologicalfootprint.com/) shows this community as a creditor rather than a debtor. The Jaina Way of Life (TJWOL) is required to be adapted as a fulcrum in governance and social life. The triplet of AAA rating of Jain values viz. Ahimsa, Anekantvad and Aparigrah can be converted into a single parameter such as Sarvodaya, the word coined by Acharya Samantabhadra (2nd CE) to accommodate the multitude of global indices of development such as happiness index, human development index, Gini coefficient etc. The Jain community is contributing in its own capacity in enriching the society in many ways. A few examples are cited in this article. What is lacking, perhaps, is the scale up these efforts to yield high impact.
