Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

Page 12

whole society. It is, therefore, his duty to try to find out the causes of social afflictions and make an attempt to remove them. This is quite consistent with the Shraman tradition of Jains.
Naturally, such a statement coming out from one who is learned and respected would shake the deeply-rooted traditionalists whose mental approach is completely oriented by notions which have little to do with the basic tenets of their religion.
The Jain community of those days, which was all admiration for the scholarship, integrity and character of this Saint, was up in arms against him. His Guru Shri Nanchandraji, who was himself a great reformist and who could appreciate the reformist zest of his dear pupil, was pressurised to disown him; he was declared an outcast and all Jains were directed to boycott him totally. For him these were the days of great mental and physical suffering. He was rendered alone and forsaken; some were ready to offer their discipleship, but he firmly resisted such efforts saying that he did not want to be a party to the split in the "Sangh" (Jain organisation). He, however, remained undaunted and stuck to his principles and preferred to tread a lonely path of service through spiritual advancement.
The traditional belief was that a Jain saint should concentrate only on the path of self-realisation and should not care to undertake the activities of social amelioration which was none of his business.
Upadhyaya Shri Amar Muniji, a venerable Jain Saint of Bihar and a person who was considered an authority on the doctrines of Jain philosophy, was himself a great reformist. He has summarised this situation in the following words:
"Co-ordination of spirituality and social welfare was destroyed in many fields of life ever since middle ages. It has become traditional with the Jain saintly order to believe that saints are
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