Jain Digest 2007 04

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

Page 11

Jain Digest. Summer 2007
Hem (Jill is Produced
EDUCATION
Most of us use silk material and silk products because they look very elegant and draw attention from others. But while enjoying the different kinds of silk we may not realize or we may be ignoring what goes on behind the scene to obtain this material. We Jains, the believers of Ahimsa, should be more careful and should learn how silk is obtained. The purpose of this chapter is to show us whether this luxury is really worth it. It will show us what we are putting the silk worms or silk moths through. What is done in the past is done but we can control the future. The life cycle and life history of the silk worm is a very important part of this formula. It starts with the silk moth laying eggs. Each moth lays somewhere between 300 to 600 eggs. Once the eggs are laid the silk worm usually dies. The eggs are held in cold storage for some time. In the early parts of each spring these eggs are put into incubators. An incubator is a hot chamber, maintained at a certain temperature, suitable for the growth and subsequent hatching of the eggs. After 20 days of incubation these eggs hatch and tiny silkworms emerge. They are about in the beginning. These worms are kept in totally clean trays. These silkworms have appetites like pigs. They eat all the time. They are fed fresh mulberry leaves and these tiny worms grow into fat worms about 3" long and 1" thick.
If the pupas are allowed to have their natural life they would grow to a silk moth in about 3 weeks inside the cacoon. But usually they are not allowed to reach this stage. Do you know why? When the worms break the cacoon these silk threads are broken into small fragments and these fragmented threads cannot be used to make silk yarns. to produce a 100 grams of elegant silk yarn you have to kill about 1,500 pupas. So you can calculate how many pupas would have to be killed to obtain different silk products for our pleasure. Maybe 1,000; 2.000; 5,000; 10,000; or more. I am sure you have figured out the fate of the pupa inside the cocoon by now. Let us see how merciful they are in collecting silk. Some people gather large number of cocoons in wooden baskets and put them in boiling water for a period of time. Can you guess what it feels like to be put in hot boiling water? Other people put the large baskets in heat chambers for sometime. And then there are some people who just boil them in simple pots. Poor pupas! They have to die so we can wear silk.
To get these mulberry leaves for the worms the farmers grow them for this specific purpose. These worms look very adorable. These worms are put in baskets filled with mulberry leaves. As said carlier they eat continuously and grow fat until they stop growing. Now they are transferred to different wooden baskets with spiral compartments filled with stems of straws and twigs. Here, the worms have very little space to move around. To attach themselves to these twigs they worms spin a web. While moving around the worms secrete a gum-like fluid which hardens these threads together. After spinning for about 3 days a cacoon formation is completed around the worm. Now the worms change into a pupa which lives inside the cacoon and matures till a mature moth can emerge out of the cacoon.
The killing, which is done through the careless activity of
thought, speech and | body, is violence.
- Tattvärth Sutra
Jain Education Intemational
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