Jainism and Animal Issues 1997

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 32

Jainism and Animal Issues
SILK IS NOT FOR JAINS
At the JAINA Convention held in Chicago, we made the above proclamation, and hundreds of people signed it. What do you think?
But, what is wrong with silk?
However, not everyone knew why silk should not be worn. The truth is, there is nothing wrong with silk in and of itself. It is one of the finest fabrics, smooth and soft in texture, and beautifully rich and attractive in colors. There was no competition to it for thousands of years.
So, then, why should we be so much against silk?
The answer lies in the actual process of making silk. Like cotton or rayon, silk cannot be grown on trees. Like nylon and polyester, silk cannot be synthetically manufactured in factories from petroleum products. But, like wool hair that must be grown on animals such as sheep, silk threads must be grown on silkworms.
The silkworm is so small, that we need thousands of them to make just one sari. Let us look at the process. The worm that is hatched from eggs, is put on a mulberry leaves dict. She fattens fast, and wants to go to sleep, called hibernation. She weaves a cocoon around itself, from a fiber secreted from her mouth. That fiber is extremely thin, so it also secrets a gum along with it, to give it strength. In order to make the cocoon tight and strong, the fiber has to be thousands of feet long. When all is done, with the other end of the fiber still in her mouth, she slowly falls asleep. After a few days, she would transform into a butterfly, break the cocoon into small pieces, and fly off.
However, those small pieces have no commercial value. The businessmen want a long unbroken thread that can be woven. So, they throw the cocoon into boiling water or into a hot air oven, where the worm wakes up, opens mouth out of pain, and releases the end of the thread. Then someone picks up the thread, and reels it off to a machine.
They kill the worm in the process for that soft, smooth, thread. We, the Jains, are against that killing. That's all!!
Don't some say that silk is the most appropriate fabric for a temple?
For the answer to this tricky question, we need to go back into history. Silk was first invented in China, about 5,000 years ago. Like some other trades, it was a monopoly of a few families. They kept the process secret for nearly 3,500 years.
In order to understand its popularity in those days, we have to go back into those days. The cotton that was hand spun then, was thicker than today's khadi. Whereas silk was just as thin as today, because the worms are still the same!
So, not knowing how they made silk, everybody admired it for its smoothness and softness. Very easily it became the status symbol for kings and royals. The temple priests also, hungry for donations, used to woo the kings and rich merchants.
However, strictly speaking from original Jain Agams and Tatvarthsootra, there is no room for a showoff in a temple. Neither is there room for a product of death/violence in it. Why do we remove our shoes, or watchbands, outside the temple? Simply because they are made of leather! No, there is no room for silk in a Jain temple.
How can we identify silk?
The new synthetic fibers of modern mills are as soft, smooth, and lustrous as silk. And cheaper too. Nevertheless, in the business world there is a tendency to tell you what you want to hear, instead of the truth.
The Indian government does not impose printing fabric contents on clothes, the way other countries do. So it makes it easy for the merchants to sell by color and design. Some would not mind passing nylon as silk, or silk as nylon, depending upon what you are asking for.
If you do not want to support this violence, how would you guard yourself against such unscrupulous merchants? Can you test the fabrics easily? Fortunately yes, there is one simple test available, that anybody can easily execute.
From one end of the fabric, cut a small piece. Burn it. Check the ash, rub it in your fingers, and smell it. If it is plant-based cotton or rayon, it will smell clean. However, if it is protein-based wool or silk, it will have a very strong fleshy smell. Human hairs also consist of similar protein, and therefore smell the same. Pick up some hair from the shower tub, burn them, and get familiar with this smell. If the fabric is petroleum-based nylon or polyester, it will leave small hard beads at the end. So, try this test, and get familiar with it!
What are the alternatives to silk?
The market is full of beautiful, attractive looking, rich cotton and rayon fabrics. Polyester and nylon also provide a variety of alternatives. Of course, now the market is full of blends in various proportions to provide additional choices.
It's a shame that some merchants discourage buyers. Recently I went shopping for a sari. I told the merchant that I was looking only for non-silk saris. At first he told that most of the stock he carried was pure silk or a silk blend. However, as I insisted on my specification, he showed me many saris. Some were so beautiful, I wound up buying two instead of one. They were a little bit cheaper also, so I felt like getting "two for the price of one...."
And yes, I tested them both before paying. The merchant, at first, did not like my not trusting his word. However, after a while he had realized my strong stand and religious feelings. He saw the wisdom in cooperating for closing the sale!
Narendra Sheth
(28)
Jain Education Interational 2010_03