Jain Journal 2004 01

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

Page 52

S.R. BANERJEE: UNDERSTANDING JAIN RELIGION
was due to some historical influences of the time. Sometimes these differences might also be due to some other reasons.
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Jainism is very severe, very difficult to follow. Particularly the life of the Svetambara Sadhus who roam from place to place is very difficult to follow. They cannot cross the sea or water. As the Jaina Sadhus and Sadhvis could not cross the sea, Jainism did not spread outside India. But in the last quarter of the twentieth century, some groups of Jains travelled all over the world spreading Jainism. They are not Sadhus and Sadhvis in the real sense of the term, but they are called Śramana and Śramani. They are allowed to travel everywhere. This started almost at the end of the 20th century, and the Terapanthi Sadhu community was the pioneers in this respect. The Jaina monks and nuns should not stay in one place for a long time and they must be constantly on the move preaching their religion. They can halt in one place only during the rainy season and resume their journey as soon as the rains are over. Even our present Acarya Mahāprajñaji has been constantly roaming for over 70 years now. He has perhaps now left Ahmedabad as well. I saw him moving in the years 1958-59 in Calcutta and that is where I met the Acāryaji for the third time, the first time being in 1957 at Sujangarh in Rajasthan. Wherever they moved, the monks preached the Jaina philosophy and that is how the religion was propagated. People attended these preachings in large numbers and often became the followers of the religion as well. It is said that in those days both Buddha and Mahāvīra used to go from place to place trying to convince the kings and the queens by their views, because unless the kings accepted it, you could not make the rest of the people (prajās) accept their views. Normally when they addressed the king in the assembly, common people were also there, listening. It is also said that there were over 5-6 lakh followers of Mahāvīra in those days and the preaching basically involved the fundamental truths and also removing from the minds of the followers any kinds of doubts or confusions relating to who he was and what was his role on this earth.