Book Title: Jain Center Los Angeles CA 2008 09 Pratishta Souvenior
Author(s): Jain Center So CA Los Angeles
Publisher: USA Jain Center Southern California
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My Experiments with Anekantavada & Principles
Sumit Khandhar
Jainism is a religion and tradition based on nonviolence, self-control, penance, truth, compassion, service, family values and the multiplicity of viewpoints. Being brought up in a Jain family, with a Jain Center (JCSC) and Pathshala (JCYC), in a manner that revolves around these virtues, has molded me into someone whose experiences are reflective of them. On this Kurukshetra stage where life unfolds, Mahatma Gandhi stated it properly in the title of his autobiography, that his life is "the story of my experiments with truth."
I went to Nepal on my own to teach young children. Nepal was an experience like no other. Although neighbor to India and in many ways comparable, to see something so similar from another viewpoint can make you appreciate it entirely differently. This was where the lesson of anekantavada, or the multiplicity of viewpoints, became clearer to me. India struggles with poverty, lack of health care for the masses, and class distinction, among a backdrop of corruption and religious strife. But it was in Nepal that I understood these issues better, and desired to help those in need in any way that I could. It was also in Nepal that I became aware of the meaning of service, the value of family, and the universality of religion. Pros and cons, white and black, rich and poor, service and slavery, ingenuity and ignorance all seemed to coexist. Yet they often resided simultaneously in each situation and in every person, and I realized it is up to us to define from which viewpoint we choose to see it and how we choose to approach it.
Medicine, as I am learning, is more so an evolving art than an evolving science. How to emanate compassion, how to cope with patients, how to recognize suffering, and still have the energy to push forth as a lifelong student-none of this is easy. It takes endurance and motivation, and patients are aware of it when they see you. They recognize that a physician upholds honesty, integrity, and professionalism, and they know when they are being short-changed. It is from my patients that I have learned the virtue of practicing satya, or truth. Physicians diagnose patients everyday, but the reverse is just as real. I have learned that honesty is not just relaying information, but also practicing how and when that information is relayed. Truth is relative and the practice of anekantavada must often coexist with acts of honesty.
Family is a source of energy and a fountain of unconditional love. Our parents provide, sacrifice, and love for the sake of children, forsaking nothing and relenting on everything. They are the embodiment of ahimsa (nonviolence), sacrifice and love. This is the ultimate of all tenets in Jainism. To practice ahimsa is not just being vegetarian or refraining from physical injury. It is the mind, speech, and body's annihilation of causing harm to anyone or anything. One cannot practice ahimsa without understanding the truth or respecting all points of view. This cannot be learned by mere pattern recognition and regurgitation of principles. I can try to be mindful of when I cause harm, knowingly or unknowingly. I practice by observing my parents, emulating them, and returning the favor, not just to them, but to our Jain community and everyone, unconditional and universal. Paraspar upagraho jivanam-souls render service to one another.
I thank our Jain Center and JCYC for helping me to be a better person, in this life and thereafter.
Sumit Khandhar is a Pathshala alumnus who is a physician specializing in internal medicine.
Since I started attending Pathshala, I have changed from a person who didn't understand the meaning of Jainism to a person who values the principles of Jainism. Ria Jain, 13
