The Jain Deeksha Ceremony - Claude Alvarez

 

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Dear Friends,

I consider it a great privilege to be able to invite you for an event that the world rarely sees or witnesses: the diksha ceremony of 20 plus people from the Jain community at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The diksha is a celebration of the time-honoured ritual of renunciation through which select people – men and women, young and old – will become “sadhus” (saints) for life.

This particular diksha ceremony will take place on the 25 of April, 2015. Since over 10,000 people are expected to participate in it, the main ceremony will be held in the Sardar Patel stadium in the city.

I have myself participated in diksha events on earlier occasions and can testify that the ceremony not only staggers the imagination, but leaves an indelible impact on all those who witness it. Hence this invitation to those who might be interested.

The ceremony itself is very solemn but it is also an occasion of great rejoicing. Though the persons involved are cutting off their links with their immediate family and neighbourhood – in fact, with their entire worldly affairs for the rest of their temporal life – the community rejoices simply because it is a great honour and of enormous spiritual benefit that a person known to it has decided to become a monk. (Later, it will always be considered a blessing to offer sinless food to these monks when they make their unexpected appearance at your doorstep as a part of their “aachar,” their monastic discipline).

Diksha ceremonies have evolved over the past decade to manifest their inherent ecological consciousness in the most extensive of ways. Largely this has been the doing of Muni Hitruchi Vijayji Maharaj – the son of a multi-millionaire diamond merchant from Mumbai – who became a monk two decades ago and decided to revitalise the Jain tradition's obvious links with ecology. Nature, the environment, supports the life of all living beings without damaging itself or the cycles of climate.

Jainism's key belief holds that all living organisms are atma, bounded by karma and the highest goal of human life lies in liberating the atma from these karmic bondages. The diksha is a sadhana towards this goal through which the monks choose to live a life that will put non-violence to practice in its purest form.

Therefore the diksha ceremony itself is carefully planned to ensure that no elements of modern technology are used during the events because of their obvious negative impacts.

The Jain tradition of living is based on strict non-violence. Speaking of the monks themselves, no ecologist or environmentalist in the world can match the simple and frugal life-style (or carbon footprint) which they adopt after their initiation. They will walk barefoot for the rest of their lives, completely disregarding modern forms of transport. They will always possess only three pieces of clothing. A Jain monk’s life is nothing short of a miracle in today’s liberalised, privatised and globalised world based on mindless and limitless consumption and wants.

So, now, if your curiosity has been piqued and you want to witness this historic, majestic, beautiful, eco-friendly event, you should also not miss the very unique Varghoda procession that takes place a day earlier, on April 24. The event is called Varshidan and symbolises detachment (or vairagya).

The Varghoda entails the final journey of the monk-initiate through the community, prior to renunciation. During the procession through select streets of the city, the patrimony of the initiate (to which has been added equal shares from the family and others) is flung in the form of cash, jewels, expensive utensils, etc., to the thousands who congregate on either side of the slowly weaving parade. There is a festive air, as the monk-initiate literally distributes his or her earthly belongings and wealth to the people in the street. They maintain a beatific look on their face, as they renounce all, so they can adopt a life of tyaag (penance) and move with determination towards moksha (liberation).

For the Varghoda as well, no motor vehicles are used, only elephants, horse carriages, bullock carts, camels and camel carts. The intention is clear: first, no carbon pollution; two, all these animals are hired together with their care-takers, so that plenty of local people dependent on these hereditary occupations are entitled to earn a satisfactory income from these activities. Various traditional folk artists are also recruited to perform during the Varghoda procession.

Besides discarding automotive transport during the Varghoda, the diksha ceremony itself on the morning of April 25 will also avoid those other “gifts”of modern civilization. Electricity will not be used for lighting anywhere. Illumination will come from hundreds of lamps using castor oil, a traditional custom. There will be no announcements made using mikes or PA systems, yet all announcements will be clearly heard.

The event will include an exhibition of the scriptural texts of the Jains, all meticulously written with herbal inks on handmade paper. So are the hanmade paper invitations to the diksha. The employment of local calligraphers is an important focus of the efforts of the Jain sangh (community) to maintain strong links to its traditions. Every banner will be painted using only natural vegetable colours on khadi (handspun) textile.

The community hosting the diksha (which is largely the families of those who have decided to become monks that day) will organise to feed 100,000 people during the day. All the food served will be strictly vegetarian, cooked only with waste pieces of wood and no gas cylinders. Food grains and other items used in the rasoi (kitchen) will be transported there only in camel carts and bullock carts.

The ingredients used for cooking will be hand-pounded and will include hand-ground masalas, bullock-milled cold pressed oil, hand-churned atta and hand-made ghee. The mandap will be of cotton khadi. All traditional costumes will be made from khadi and will be manufactured using vegetable dyes and hand-stitched, meaning more employment for the local community. All flowers used for the rituals and for decoration will be locally grown.

Thus the diksha is being meticulously planned to ensure full and total regard for ecology, environment, local livelihoods and tradition (which is strictly pro-Jain and disregards everything that is possibly Western). The attention to detail is simply astonishing. It displays the acute devotion of people to the world of their tradition and their ability to carve out a niche for themselves that is outside the boundaries of modernity. Modernity is summarily rejected as it continues to remain bereft of virtue and cares little for either people, animals or other living creatures.

If you are ready now and keen to travel to Ahmedabad to participate in the diksha, please contact the following cell numbers or email. The Jain parivar will make the necessary accommodation for you in the city and ensure that you remain an important guest of the community for both the days.

This invitation is being issued in association with the Sansartyagotsav Parivar. Please do accept the invitation and go!

Person to contact: Shri Samveg Shah

Contact number: +91 95744 79888

E-mail – samveg.venus@hotmail.com

• Piyush Manush

  why organise it at such a scale at all .. how does big become beautiful ...

  

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  Aparna Krishnan

  i can pick out many more valid issues to object to in this - but i am not going to. but in this day and age if the violence inbuilt in modernity is brought out in any form, i would welcome it.

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• Piyush Manush

  then please welcome it !!

  

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  Aparna Krishnan

  

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• Claude Alvares

  I wrote out this invitation from the heart. The Jain muni whom I mentioned in the post approved it. He has invited me to me a monk as well, said the Jain community would be willing to make an exception. However, I have not said yes because I said yes earlier to a wonderful girl whom I am still very very fond of. I am not so much fascinated by everything in the Jain community. However, I hold the munis in awe and visit them when I can. Dikshas can be small, involving one or two people. Sometimes, they get together and have one with several people. Nothing so big as to worry about. Feeding 10,000 people free, from sheer joyousness, is only available in India. Recently, Norma visited the Gold Temple and was thoroughly impressed by the hundreds of people fed by the langar there. Learn to love this country's food sharing traditions. It makes us different from the rest of the world. And when someone decides to turn his or her back on mobiles, TV, jobs, consumer things, movies, and turns to look inside, rejoice for that as well. That's how I see it. It did me a lot of good. Thought others might want to share.

  

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  Aparna Krishnan

  Yes, the concept of feeding is so central to India. That also is most visible in simpler places. When i first went to the village, as I would walk down the road people would walk down to be to give me prasad from their vessel with a smile. Utter strangers. I got used to it. Then when I became past of festivities I realised the culture. One goes to the anthill or temple and offers, and on the way back, one wants to give to everyone one is able to, and one calls out to them and walks upto them. The giver and taker both reaffirm each other. (

  Claude

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  Aparna Krishnan

  And in Annadaanam, when our village decided to included the harijanwada across the track also i like a calculating creature told them that if they did not there would be money for a small item for each family also, maybe a small steel glass. Annasamy Anna then looked at me over his glasses, "Do you know what Annadaanam is ? tell me.". He waited to make it clear to me that I did not know. then he said, "It is to give food to all, to call and give. It is the greatest of the three daanams". This is my country, and this is why i love my country !