Pristine Jainism

Author(s): S M Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 76

Code of Conduct : (73) Taking meals before sunset and after sunrise has been a identification mark of Jains traditionally. This is not only to avoid violence to insects and other small organisms, which are not clearly visible in night but also for better health. Medical science endorses this traditional practice on scientific basis that there should be at least four hours gap between meals and sleep for better digestion By restricting intake of food before sunset this gap is automatically maintained. People taking meals after sunset in night generally go to sleep soon after and suffer from digestive problems. In houses where dinner time is in night, food is also generally cooked in night and there are numerous cases on record of poisoning of cooked food by falling and mixing of harmful creatures in it and causing serious ailments and even deaths. The entire Jaina community of all sects and subsects was till recently only 5-6 decades back was so strict about meals before sunset that even marriage ceremonies were postponed midway and not carried to final end if this practice was not adhered to by any of the parties. It is a sad travesty that same Jains now a days feel proud by arranging late night dinners. Jains still adhering to the tradition of meals before sunset are fast dwindling in numbers and it is almost missing in younger generation. For centuries and millennia the practice of meals before sunset was prevalent in all communities particularly in rural India. The concepts of late lunch and dinner developed and took roots during British rule. The Britishers were rulers and were here to enjoy. In their own country and in Europe and America most of working populace take super, their evening meals before sunset. The general practice there is to take good breakfast and take very light snacks and beverage at lunch time because heavy lunch was conducive to more accidents in factories. After return from work in the evening, the worker feels hungry and therefore the principal evening meal is super before sunset. We have copied their wrong practices and not good ones. It is not only regrettable but also shameful for at least Jaina community to have gone astray in abandoning the scientifically sound tradition of meals during daytime only.
The other well-known identification of Jains was to take water only after proper filtering in a clean double folded cloth. In one of the