Jain Spirit 2001 12 No 09

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 68

VIEWPOINT
NO MORE AUCTIONS!
Sudhir M. Shah argues that the ritual of ghee-boli has become out-of-date and needs to be abolished
D
URING A RECENT SOCIAL OCCASION AT A PROMINENT JAIN centre, I observed an event that compelled me to write this article. In the temple there was ghee-boli (auctioning) for aarti and deevo (worship ceremony). When it was time to do aarti, a group of children that usually participate enthusiastically were just sitting around. One of the younger children innocently said, "Let's go for aarti". To that an older child in the group replied, "We can't go because our parents did not bid for the aarti." Realising that I was listening, the child looked at me and I looked down in shame. I was ashamed that I kept quiet and tolerated this irrational tradition, a ritual carried out in the name of religion in a temple, that in fact opposes everything Jainism stands for!
Auctioneering promotes ego, greed and jealousy and in some cases even anger! There is a competition for exhibition. The temptation for the show dominates kindness and compassion. Through this tradition, we have allowed hypocrisies, charades and exhibitionism to permeate into Jainism. We teach our children to control their passions and yet we invent events like ghee-boli to satisfy our ego, our passion for fame, praise and social position. Even monks encourage these events!
Sure, funds are needed to run the organisation, but proper ways of fund raising and giving are clearly prescribed in our scriptures. Acharanga Sutra, the oldest of our scriptures clarifies the needs to separate dharma (religious activity) from vyavahar (social activity). Acharya Amrit Chandra Suri explains that a donor has no desire for reward or compensation of any kind such as fame and fortune, profit and prosperity. A donor refrains from envy and competition. He is modest and free from ego! We all have learned from childhood that when a right hand gives, only the left hand should know about it and yet we refrain from giving unless our name is recognised, our statues are erected or our photos are put up. It is shameful to see in our temples photos of the donors hung up on the walls, the names of the donors carved in stone instead of spiritual verses from agamas or the reminders to help us control our inner weaknesses. The
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Jain Spirit December 2001 February 2002
JAYU SHAH
No More Auctions!
A family worshipping at Sammet Shikhar, India purpose of bhandars (donation box) in the temple is to promote anonymous donations within each individual's capacity with no selfish motive. There is something really special in the ultimate joy that comes from within when one gives without anyone knowing about it. Let us not deprive ourselves of internal bliss just for the sake of satisfying our ego.
I have talked to many young Jains at our Centre as well as many others at the conventions and workshops, and almost without exception all Jain youths are turned off by ghee-boli. Not only do they not participate in this event, they simply leave the room in boycott. Youth groups had raised this issue at a recent teachers and educators convention. There was a lengthy discussion on this subject. One adult passionately spoke in favour, arguing that without ghee-boli we would not be able to raise the kind of money needed to build big temples in this country. To this the youth representatives made their choice very clear. "If we cannot raise funds in line with Jain philosophy, we would rather not have temples built for our future." They would much rather have smaller and simpler temples or community centres that can be managed without tainted money from ghee-boli.
There are people who think that ghee-boli is a wrong way of fund raising and yet support this tradition saying: "Let's be practical, we need funds and this method works." Here is the question for them: are we willing to sacrifice our principles for this tradition? Are we willing to alienate the young generation, the future of Jainism? Is this really being practical? Has our creativity dried up completely or has our society fallen so low that we cannot come up with an alternative in line with our philosophy? Let us determine to abolish ghee-boli from Jain tradition and enthusiastically embrace the true Jain tradition of anonymous donations.
Sudhir Shah lives in New Haven, Connecticut, USA and is a keen writer and promoter of Jainism (helped by his whole family). He has his own fascinating website www.anekant.org