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message from the youngsters is clear - they want to learn in various ways they are used to learning in this society. They want to debate and learn how to apply the teachings of Jainism in their lives. This could mean reevaluating the teaching methods and combining the best of traditional eastern and successful open methods of the west; training the teachers and providing them with resources to educate, and inspire and empower the future leaders of the Jain community.
Looking at the young professional NA bom Jains, we can take immense pride in their incredible success in all walks of their lives. Given a forum to participate in, an opportunity to innovate and a cause to lead, they have done a fabulous job in organizing the YJA Convention over the years. Does that enthusiasm disappear or get deflated over the years? We have to figure out how to attract and mold our next generation - the young adults and young professionals. Recently an interesting observation was made at most major universities and companies like Google, Microsoft, and Cisco where there are decent numbers of immigrant Indians working with NAs of Indian origin: The NAS of Indian origin joined their immigrant cousin to enjoy watching world cup cricket; likewise, the immigrant Indians joined the NAS of Indian origin in watching the games of March madness. Learning from the observation, we can clearly say, the roots are common, we just have to find avenues and means for collaboration. Many of these young NA born professionals are expressing their Jain values in many nontraditional ways, such as leading the green cause (vegan life style), making a commitment to live a life of honesty and integrity, helping the underprivileged of the society and some even believe in meditation and self-introspection. If we ask our youth to take over and run the Jain organizations, they will not be successful if we limit them within the strict bounds of an established tradition, they will have to be given freedom to make changes to our traditions. This is bound to generate conflict. However, if we understand Jainism, it never condemns conflicts, as a matter of fact, in many respects it encourages discussing conflicts. Conflicts are a natural outcome of our karmic state, what Jainism teaches is a method to resolve such conflicts or find amicable way to work around conflicts and in the process ensuring core message of Jainism is not lost. Acharya Umaswati (or Umaswami) revered by both Shwetamber and Digamber
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fractions could not resolve the conflicts between the two groups, but his classic Tattvartha Sutra ensured continuation of Jain values for many generations to come.
Looking at the broader aspect of the sangh-Jain community of NA, let us not forget that religion is only one aspect of Jains of North America, just as it is of a person's life. Let us not forget the social and cultural aspects - it is the whole package that will be needed to attract and bring back the young professionals a platform for the new generation to come together to bond, network and relate to each other - spiritually, culturally and professionally.
Spirituality among Jain families
During our interview with various Acharyas in India, we were amazed to find similarity in their answers related to spirituality in USA. In one of the earlier visits Acharya Mahapragya once explained to us the importance and difference of Upasana (tradition) and Adahyama (spirituality). There is no difference in spirituality. among all the Jain traditions, in fact concept or spirituality extends the boundaries of a specific religion. The difference is in the traditions, traditions are required to maintain a sangh, help in propagating the religion, and set a stage for inspiring spirituality. Thus, a tradition by its very nature has cultural influence, its spirituality that helps in the ultimate self-realization. In a classic Jain sense one can view spirituality as the practice of Veetrag. Veetrag or the practice of Veetrag is development of the internal state that is free from attachment and aversion.
Let us do a small probabilistic evaluation of spirituality from a sadhutva perspective. One can assume some amount of spiritual feeling is innate among certain individuals. Taking the population of Jains in NA to be around hundred thousand compared to ten million in India, about hundred sadhus should be living among us (compared to about 10000 sadhus in India). This, not being the case, it would imply that either the environment is not conducive for people in NA to leave sansaric life, or the population distribution is such that they are not prepared to take up the path of Sadhutva. In all likelihood it is some combination of the above two situations. Yet among the next
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