________________
around culturally specific ideals, norms, principles and advertised prescriptions, on the one hand, and the multidirectional forces and interests of actual workfloor decisions, on the other.
The questions I have phrased for the interview with Amit Bhansali, Managing Director of Rosy Blue in Antwerp, have as their point of departure the academic distinction between 'prescribed' and 'lived' religion (Orsi in Hall 1997). The distinction between prescription and description, therefore, is the first, overall, gradation. The high ethical standards of Jainism have, for a large part, been determined by ascetics, as reflected in most canonical and commentarial literature. Most lay followers trying to bring such lofty ideals into practice in ever more refined and purified behaviour, will acknowledge that their own goal should be lowered to the more modest householder's code of conduct, and will adopt common-sense views. This is the second gradation, a creative tension between the ascetic's norms and the householder's norms. The third gradation is the creative tension between community-internal established codes of conduct and dealings with/on a multicultural multidirectional workfloor.
My first question addresses prescribed and lived religion:
Why is, in your personal opinion and experience, right view, right faith or enlightened perception (samyaktva, samyagdrsti, samyagdarśana) so central to your worldview, your identity as a Jain, and as a businessman? You started the process of writing your dissertation with a selection of texts on 'right view'. In what way does 'right view' guide 'right conduct"? And could one use the long list of the 'wrong beliefs' (mithyätva) as a very practical daily what-not-to-do checklist? And then, when one is constantly on guard against those 25 types of false views (the notenlightened perceptions), how does this translate to your actual quotidian behavior and practice, or what the two American authors referenced above, call 'lived' religion? Would you compare the term vyavahāra (the domain of good practice, secular/worldly behavior) to the term 'lived' religion, or is vyavahāra still a norm, a code of conduct instead of actual and lived behavior? If so, is Jain religion, even for a layman, ideally a 24/7 awareness? In other words, how 'liveable' is Jain lived religion?
My second question addresses ascetic ideals and the layman's code of conduct:
In your presentation of 'right faith' as the core and essence, you take the great preceptors of Jainism and the commentaries as the basis of authority. Please explain how ultimate concerns, such as final liberation (moksa, mukti) in the Jain worldview, when firmly believed in, and serving as the highest ideal, may be cherished alongside the chaotic, messy, distracting, sometimes heartwarming but often tiresome life as a family man, a business man with huge responsibilities, a man with substantial means and assets? How could the two ever be reconciled? Is there an internal contradiction in all that, and how are you supposed to cope with that?
359
