Jinamanjari 2001 04 No 23

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 53

movement differs from most other Jain groups because its gurus, including śrīmad, are not initiated ascetics. Independent gurus have lead to independent pockets of administration. Disciples of living gurus form collections of guru-centred communities with their guru, alongside śrīmad, as the object of devotion. Each community is a discrete, autonomous group and disciples are subject to the authority of their guru only, not to a broader administrative body. Devotees who have chosen not to follow a living guru are either individual followers, or grouped into a community (for example the community of followers at Agās Āśram). Communities are not required to interact, although groups show mutual courtesy and respect towards each other.
There is no uniform initiation ritual required to gain entry to the movement as a whole, although some communities have their own initiation procedures. People, either as individual followers or independent communities, are members of the śrīmad Rājacandra movement because they are devoted to śrīmad. They follow his philosophy and religious instruction, which includes a commitment to guru bhakti, however it is implemented. A follower can be excluded from an independent community. For example, a dissenter can be evicted for failing to keep the rules of the aśram, but cannot be excluded from the Śrīmad Rājacandra movement, because belief in Srimad is the criterion for inclusion.
Each individual follower and independent community is a constituent part of the movement. The organisational structure of the movement is a pattem of how these constituent parts are arranged in relation to each other. The implementation of guru bhakti by Śrīmad's followers has influenced the fragmented social structure of the śrīmad Rājacandra movement, which consists of individual followers and independent groups of followers, some of whom are organised around a living guru.
CONCLUSION
The śrīmad Rājacandra movement is an ideological movement without a central administration. Membership is defined by devotion to śrīmad. This devotion is the ideology which unites followers of Srimad and consolidates them into a
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