Portrait of Jain Religion

Author(s): Narendra Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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usually timed with the observance of the annual Paryushan festival. This provides sustained opportunity of delivering religious discourses to community followers and interpreting to the wider public the spiritual dimensions of the compassionate Jain philosophy. In recent years with Jain business persons, professionals, doctors and engineers settling abroad in Americas, Europe, Africa and elsewhere in large groups, some Jain monks like Acharya Sushil Kumarji broke the tradition and traveled abroad to guide their followers as well as to spread the Jain message of comprehensive non-violence in foreign countries. Now on a regular basis many shwetambar monks and nuns are going abroad on religious missions.
VASTRA
Digambar Jain monks are sky-clad. Shwetambar monks wear unstitched or minimally stitched white cotton clothes viz., Cholapattak, Uttariya vastra and Kamli. They also carry a bed sheet and a mat to sit and sleep. Invariably they keep a muhapatti on their mouth to prevent insects getting in. They carry a Rajaharan- a broom of woolen threads to clear insects from where they sit or walk. Digambar monks carry a Morpichchi (broom of peacock feathers). They also carry a kamandal with water for their ablutions.
KESH-LOCH: After receiving diksha (initiation into monkhood), hair cannot be cut, but only plucked with fingers twice a year or atleast once a year during Puryushan festival. Kesh-lochan is a painful exercise and is an integral part of the severe austerities practiced by Jain monks.
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A Portrait of Jain Religion