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ness, killing each other, slaughtering some ten billion life forms each year. We have a lot of work to do, and for this, the Jains are well placed to bring about a whole new renaissance in human ethics.
Expose your children to nature. Urge them to hug a tree, to plant a tree as people like Nancy Jain in Toronto have done. Nature is our best teacher - we must help our children understand what bio-diversity means and what it is to become extinct, Not just through documentaries and films but through active participation in organic farms, like Satish Kumar is doing. Get them to understand why we must be vegetarian.
The late Sushil Kumar was a master at drawing outside traditions in and drawing himself out to interface with other groups. He went to Rio, Japan, met Gorbachev and even Sadam Hussein. You might say why would he have done that? As I have said. your greatest chance for inspiration is to meet your enemy head on. Let your worst adversary become your mentor. The yogi that sits under the volcano is prepared for the greatest liberation of all because he places himself in the path of disaster knowingly.
I have promoted individuals contacting other individuals and before you know it. you have a community of like-minded spirits. Institutions are divorced from my reality. They don't communicate with me, they don't have a heart, they are not something I can touch or smell or laugh with. The Jain organisations, whether it is Young Jains or JAINA in North America, should be good at propagating the principles of Jainism through action. As a social regime, the affairs of matrimony, dating and of young Jains getting to gether to make new friends are critical components to maintaining the unity of a community. Jains should become a dominant force that shape major aspects of the cultural, social, economic and political life of the country in which they live. Jains have been shy throughout history, but it is important that they own up to the power of their convictions.
Let them see first hand what animal suffering is all about. Indeed it has been said that if slaughterhouses were out in the open in America, that would spell the end of every fast food place. Dogma which rejects reality cannot be sustained by many generations, because it becomes narrower and narrower, more and more obscure, divorcing the individual from the times in which they live. If we are to be good parents and to inspire our children, we have to truly educate them. We have to show them the darkness, not to make them feel daunted and overwhelmed, or made to feel useless or impotent, but that they should be so enraged by what's happening in our world and so reminded of the miracle of creation that their heart will overflow with abundant love, and that they will go out there and know what to do, to change the world for the better. Because we are loving parents, we will nurture them, give them the resources and the creative space so that they will make a difference, be enraged, get into politics, into animal rights, become environmentalists, starting vegetarian restaurant chains around the world to combat McDonalds and Burger King. Children need to understand the extent of damage being reeked by our species or they will be powerless to make a difference.
Thoroughout Jain history, there have been Jain kings and great leaders, not to mention the huge working collective of Jain lawyers, judges, even some members of parliament. The former UK Indian High Commissioner Dr. L. M. Singhvi is a perfect example of one who as a sain has applied the principles to a much broader sphere of interactions with the world. I am not advocating proselytising or preaching and I am certainly not advocating violence, which often intervention is construed to be. Instead I am suggesting that you fight with non-violence as Sushil Kumar recommended. During the course of this interview, how many hundreds of thousands of animals will be slaughtered, how many children will die of starvation? We have no choice, we have to get involved, we have to do it now and if we don't, the whole notion of being a Jain is fraudulent. We must act now and decisively.
Q. One area through which the Jains could raise income to finance their activities and at the same time have an influence on their wider communities is through careful cooperative purchasing of 'Jain' goods and services. What is your opinion on this?
A young housewife in Tokyo gathered her friends together and what at first must have resembled a tupperware party has now expanded into one of the most powerful cooperatives in Asia. They are now doing a half a billion dollars of business a year, and print their own catalogue of green products, selling them at great discounts. Even our investments could be restricted to companies practicing Ahimsa. At the 1993 JAINA convention in Pittsburgh, we invited an investment expert from Merril Lynch who spoke to the convention about how to choose ahimsa portfolios. Given their skills in business, Jains have the opportunity to come up with innovative goods and services and thereby influence other manufacturers and suppliers. The opportunities are endless. The Jains more than any other group have the responsibility and creative power to make those kinds of economic decisions amongst themselves and exercise real power in the marketplace. Jains constitute millions of consumers and we all have the ability to choose what we wish to consume. This power must be harnessed.
Q. One of the challenges facing the Jain community is to pass their heritage onto the next generation. How can we motivate children to learn and practice Jainism and grow up to be compassionate and responsible individuals?
Q. There are many Jain organisations and institutions that have been created in recent years, but Jainism is not really an institutionalised religion. What is the role of an institution within the Jain community and how can we prevent institutions from becoming an end in themselves rather than a means to an end?
Firstly, expose them to animals, not in zoos but in other arenas. Take them to wildlife parks that are more natural. Spend that extra money not on a car but taking your children to the rainforest.
Institutions make me nervous. I have never been one to promote institutions.
July - September 1999. Jain Spirit
51
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