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Jinamasjari, Volume 23, No.1, April 2001
UNITY AND DIVERSITY AMONGST THE FOLLOWERS OF SRIMAD RĀJACANDRA
Emma Salter
Introduction
John Cort wrote that scholarship "needs to reach the point where statements of what Jains do or believe are understood for what they are, namely generalizations and abstractions which operate on the level of ideology rather than description." Following Cort's cue that to really begin to understand a religion we have to learn about its specifics, I hope to contribute to the broadening understanding of Jainism with a detailed investigation of one particular group of Jains, the followers of śrīmad Rājacandra. As well, this paper examines how śrīmad Rājacandra's followers are socially organised. It shows that although they are ideologically united by their devotion to Srimad, which leads to a common acceptance of his philosophical and religious teaching, their interpretation of his teachings, specifically guru bhakti, has resulted in a fragmented social organisation.
śrīmad Rājacandra (1867-1901) was a Gujarātī Jain householder who practised as a religious teacher and maintained a strict ascetic regime. Although he never took initiation as a mendicant, śrīmad claimed to have achieved samyak darśana and also to have enabled a number of his closest disciples to attain this state of self-realisation. He was originally called Lakşmīnandan Mahetā. His parents changed his name to Rãycandbhāi when he was four years old, the name by which Mohandas Gāndhi (1869-1949) refers to him. Later he
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