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WELCOME
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WHAT IS YOUR CO? Jains all over the world place a strong emphasis on IQ - Intelligence Quotient. We spend valuable time and money to ensure our children get the best education. Even parents today are very well educated and professionally accomplished. Looking forward into the 21st century of unprecedented change and globalisation, alongside IQ, the ingredient which is really going to help sustain personal success is going to be CQ - our knowledge of culture and self-identity. Without this, we will be swept aside by the pace of external changes and lose our own self-esteem and selfunderstanding. We may all be fully literate in a modern sense, but are we suffering from cultural illiteracy?
From my global travels, I have come to understand that outside India, our knowledge about our culture is sliding fast because we are too busy with attaining commercial and material success. This will give us all the temporary symbols of success, but underneath it, the cracks are already appearing. Children are stressed out by over-education. Youth depression is on the increase, alcoholism and drugs are not uncommon, and confusion about career and life goals is increasing. Families are breaking apart too and marriages are suffering.
How do we develop our CQ? Reading, writing, reflecting, discussing. travelling and observing are the basic tools of education. Our adviser, Prof. Padmanabh Jaini always laments to me how weak we are at reading. This is very true today, and with the media world that we live in, people prefer to watch TV and movies than to read. We need to address this, by spending some time each week reading about our culture and cultivating this habit among our children. If we will not read, we will fade culturally and may lose our bearings and sense of place in this fast changing world.
Debate and discussion is common among young people today, but on what subjects, and to what end? Often, I find that debate is there for the sake of showing intellectual prowess rather than developing actual learning. There is often an underlying anti-culture bias, and culture is seen as representing the past and out of date, rather than the future which is where young people wish to go. The article by Tanuj Shah in this issue demonstrates the weakness of intellectualism for its own sake. Good debate requires good homework, which we do not seem to like doing.
Writing and reflection about culture is also declining. Mobile phones, emails and text messages reduce the importance of considered thinking, reflection and writing. Right Understanding (Samyak Gnan) requires sustained effort. When we visit India, do we spend time talking with Jain monks and nuns? Do we visit our temples to worship,
Jain Education International
observe and to study or as mere tourist attractions? How much time do we spend trying to understand and soak in our culture?
Art and culture are directly entwined, and art is a very important route to understanding our culture. In the article on Festivals in this issue, we explore the need for celebration and common worship among the Jains on certain days in the year. It is important to educate our children about these festivals and to participate in them as a part of our cultural education and development. When I recently visited Jain temples in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, I was mesmerised by the numbers of children attracted to them. They were really enjoying the peace and the artistic beauty, and loved participating in the worship.
JAIN SPIRIT is a carefully filtered and compiled package of cultural education which combines text and pictures. It enhances peoples' CQ. Thousands of our readers already take advantage of this bargain package. However, thousands of Jains have inertia about subscribing as culture is not their priority. Some even think it is a birthright, and they should get Jain Spirit for free. We need to educate people about the benefits of cultural investment and subscription. A gift subscription from you will give friends and relatives the first
Reading is vital
I have a very simple request. If each of our subscribers gives three gift subscriptions to their friends and relatives at a cost of £30 ($45), we can hit our target in three months. All you have to do is phone UK 01206-500037 or email us, with the names and addresses and we will do the rest.
step on the ladder, after which they are very likely to continue on their own. Rajesh and Asha Mehta in Antwerp have given 120 annual gift subscriptions to local Jains, and they received 120 Thank You's! You too can do this in your city. As Editor, it is my personal target and priority to ensure that this magazine reaches 10,000 homes within the next two years. I need your help in attaining this target. We have databases of Jains to whom we could send gifts on your behalf, but we need financial assistance to achieve this.
To give me a chance to plan the magazine over the next two years and continue to publish fresh informative articles, we have appointed a Guest Editor for issue 15. Falguni Patel is a very talented young Jain living in Manchester, and she is already the News and Youth Editor of Jain Spirit. In issue 15, she will be the overall editor and you will get the opportunity to experience an alternative approach. Have a Happy and Prosperous 2003!
Jai Jinendra,
Atul K. Shah
Executive Editor editor/jainspirit.com
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