Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

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

Page 50

WORKPLACE
WORKING THE JAIN JIGSAW
Rupesh Shah believes that becoming a Jain means constant puzzle-solving in the workplace
"I'm starting a new business." "What? But, Mum, what about your accounting?" "Accounting, b'ccounting. I've had enough of working for that company. Something doesn't sit right anymore.” Denuka spun the bottle of chilli sauce on its side and watched its centre stay still on the kitchen table. "Don't play with food. It's paap," her son retorted. "I'm playing with the bottle," she said, giving it another more leisurely twist this time and noticing the sauce inside roll up the sides and slurp back down again. "Have you ever looked at your hand and considered how great it was - how it had been designed so fabulously that pens slot in neatly between thumb and forefinger and rest on your middle finger as if that was why the middle finger could bend like that?" "Yeah, they are kind of special. But, Mum..." "Well, I've been wondering about how good my hands really
'messages' I hear concerning the social and cultural 'rules' of being a member of the Jain community.
As a member of the overwhelmingly well-to-do Jain community, I often hear very clear communication regarding the importance of success when defining my life-existence as an Oshwal Jain. Rather than being specific statements, e-mails or letters by individuals, these messages present themselves to me as a pattern of images, icons and stories, which are presented as the cultural symbols of a 'good life' - the educational success of people, the tales of well-paid jobs secured, fables of grand houses, financially successful businesses and money donated to charity.
These messages all seem to convey something about the importance and value of material success and improvement in our physical world in defining my existence as a young Jain. To be sure, many of these messages are amplified through the loudspeaker of our consumerist, patriarchal, economicgrowth-at-all-costs', separative civilisation. 2
Yet, at the same time as I receive such messages, I also hear another very different group of messages related to the religious aspect of my becoming a Jain. These concern the need to pursue a life defined by non-violence (ahimsa). I hear stories about the need to strive towards the release from the karmic cycle through an attitude of detached compassion for the sensations of the material world.
So, from one part of the forest of daily noise I perceive the wild call to strive for material success and wellbeing in this physical world. At the same time, I also hear a polite request from other parts of the forest, which suggests that I should really focus on my soul - the "more-than-physical-me', if you like. This other set of messages seem to contradict, or at least put in doubt, the value, validity and soundness of the first set.
are." "Huh?
"Well, when it comes to handling chopsticks I can't say that they feel well designed." "Maybe that's chopsticks." "I doubt a billion Chinese people would agree." "I'm sure there are many things you can do with your hands. Wait a sec, let's go back to your job." "I told you - I'm quitting. Starting out on my own." "But how can you?"
It seems to me that there is a bit of a puzzle at the heart of being a lay Jain in the 21st century. This puzzle or irony comes from an apparent contradiction, or at least something of a tease between the 'messages I hear regarding the religious 'rules' that help define how to become a Jain and the
1. I am making reference to a broad realm of messages, which include direct verbal cues, as well as communication that comes from the histories, visions, pictures and worldviews of a more aggregated level of the 'conscious mind'. 2. I have used the term 'separative 'very intentionally here. By it I am seeking to make reference to a culture which seems to me to attempt (but ultimately fails) to separate things rather than understand their unity, so for example it seems to focus on a separation between man and nature, between male and female, facts and values, West from East, 'self from other' or between good and evil.
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Jain Spirit . June - August 2003
Jain Education Interational 2010_03