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1441
Monks 'Dilemma
Manager, "There is a highly revered saint staying here. He is the head of prominent Sthanakvasi Swetamber Jain sect."
They left early to meet the saint. Priya did not accompany as she has to go to the forest office for her work in Jammu. When they reached the venue breakfast was being served to the devotees. They also joined. The president of the managing committee, seeing new faces, asked about the place they came from. Shree told him all about their antecedents and also about the sect and its head and her period as a nun. The president though not happy by seeing her as a householder, reconciled himself, because such detractions though not common, are being tolerated by the community in view of changed legal aspects. He gave her special attention and promised her an exclusive audience with the saint. The routine daily discourse started at 9.a.m. After the customary ritual of obeisance by devotees, bowing, touching his feet, prostrating and getting boons was over they got the opportunity to meet the saint in his room.
The Saint was inquisitive and asked Shree the reasons for reversal to the household, "You were under a very learned guru and must have imbibed the truth that being a nun is far better than a householder for emancipation of self and ultimate salvation from the miseries of the cycles of birth and death. What made you change your mind?"
Shree, "My brother Deepak was repentant for the circumstances under which I was made a nun and my parents were forced into monkhood. He and particularly my bhabi Deepti told me the greater truth than you are telling. There is a mention in our scriptures that householders can also attain the so called salvation. If you think without prejudice you will
Monks' Dilemma
145 agree that a person shouldering all the household responsibilities can attain salvation and he is more competent as compared to the monk who has run away from the challenges of household. I am now convinced that monks are parasites and dependent on householders who toil hard to arrange everything for them."
The saint was aghast by such strong views against monkhood and that too from a former nun.
Shree asked, "In your morning discourse you told about meditation, hymns (mantras), their techniques and powers. You also stressed the necessity of some photo or idol of Arhat or guru to practice concentration whereas the Sthanakvasi tradition is opposed to idol worship. I am also unable to understand the reasons of the saints of almost all Jain or Hindu sects, claiming to have extraordinary powers of mantras, being confined up to Jammu only and none has the courage to venture farther in the valley for fear of terrorists. None of the saints past and present have ever been able to subdue any enemy, invader and any present day terrorists. Where is the truth in your eulogised mantras?
Acharya, "You have turned an atheist and I do not want to waste time in arguing with a convert like you who has left the lofty life of a nun for the sake of worldly pleasures which are all transient and short lived and which eventually bring miseries."
Shree, "You have evaded my question because you are fettered with your own orthodox views. I am sorry and beg leave. She performed the ritual of obeisance, bowed and prostrated."
This comforted the Acharya to some extent,
