Jain Journal 1999 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 11

FLÜGEL : JAINISM AND THE WESTERN WORLD
He accepted, however, immediately Upādhyāy Indravijay's invitation to attend the memorial ceremony starting on the 22.1.1923 in Shivpuri, where a temple (samadhimandir) in Vijayadharmasūri's honour was erected on the site of his cremation. The similarities and differences shared between the European Indologist and the Jain sādhu are well caught in Winternitz' description of his farewell from Indravijaya, who, Winternitz writes, emerged from his abode in the evening "cheerful and happy as ever": "It is remarkable how happy, calm and serene these monks are, despite the hard life which they lead. He asked me: "How many meals did you have today already?" I had to concede shamefully, that there had been four, whereupon he told me-not without an innocent joy, I cannot call it pride, that he had eaten nothing for 36 hours already. For the monks were fasting in honour of their ācārya. Curious as ever, he asked, how much salary I got per month, and how much of that I needed, and things like that. Then he asked, whether I believed in reincarnation and a soul. I had to answer in the negative. He could not imagine that one did not believe in reincarnation. The indeed the whole doctrine of karman would be futile, and the people would not receive their due reward or the just punishment for their deeds. That one can love the people and do good, without thinking about one's own ego and believing in one's soul as a thing that is eternally alive, as I maintained, he seemed not to understand" (p. 374.). "I had, throughout these days, when I participated in the many ceremonies, often the feeling, that in all this ceremonial there is endless ritualism involved, outward show, joy of pomp and not very much true religious sentiment. In which religion is it any different? But nevertheless in this wonderful moonlit night it was to me an endlessly touching sight to see all these good and pious people, offering their reverence to their great teacher, the monk who entered into the nirvana. All these people, who lived in the world, most of them as merchants, traders etc., united nevertheless here in the veneration of a man, who did not want to have anything to do with worldly goods, but who took upon himself the hard life of a wandering monk, in order to teach and preach what he held to be the highest truth and wisdom" (p. 375).
Today the direction of travel has reversed. Even Jain religious functionaries are now moving out of India both to be educated in scientific research and to proselytize, since due to the efforts of Vallabhavijaysüri and other reform-minded monks the Jain community has incorporated the ideals of scientific research as far as indological studies are concerned. Apparently before he became a monk Muni Jina Vijaya, for example, went to see Hermann Jacobi in Bonn: "When I went to Germany in 1928 with a view to acquiring first-hand