November
1994
The Satya Interview:
Muni Nandibhushan Vijayi, a Jain Priest
By Rynn Berry |
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Many people unwittingly regard Jainism — the religion
of ten million Indians and an increasing number of devotees worldwide
— as a branch of Hinduism; the Jains, however, maintain, not
without cogent archaeological evidence, that Jainism is the parent
religion
of India. Mahavira, the most recent of the twenty-four jinnas (victors),
is considered the historical founder of Jainism, and with the Buddha,
is credited with having abolished animal sacrifice and introducing
the
doctrine of ahimsa (non-injury) into the Vedic religion. The Jains
established the first animal hospitals (pinjarpols) in India as well
as the world,
and are noted for practicing the stringent vegetarianism detailed below.
They imbue creatures such as worms, ants and flies with souls, and
will
do their utmost to avoid injuring them.
I met the 39 year old Muni Nandibhushan Vijayji at the Santinath Jain
temple in Bombay in 1993. He had been a priest since he was fifteen.
A master of many languages — he speaks Gujarati, Marathi, and
Hindi — the Muni has a reading knowledge of Sanskrit, Prakrit,
and Maghadi (the language of Mahavira and the Buddha), and considerable
fluency in English. We met on the top floor of the temple, where seven
other monks were staying at the time. Although the interview was held
in the winter (January), the air that wafted through the balcony windows
was warm and heavy with the pungent odors of Bombay; in the hubbub
from
the streets below, one could hear street vendors hawking pomegranates,
sugar-cane, and custard apples; songbirds alighted on the sun-washed
balcony, and nonchalantly strutted back and forth.
RB: Why did you become a priest at such a tender
age?
MNV: There are two reasons why one
would want to become a sadhu [male priest] — one is unhappy with
the world and desires to escape from it; one meets a guru who inspires
one
to follow his example. In my case it was the latter. After school,
I used to go to hear a Jain guru who persuaded me through his words
and
his example that I could only make spiritual progress if I were to
become a sadhu; so at the age of fifteen I left school and became a
sadhu;
I ceased my formal education, but in a sense my education really began
when I left school.
RB: Are women allowed to become priests?
MNV: Yes, in fact the majority of Lord Mahavira’s
followers were women, which was more than two thousand years ago. The
Jain priesthood has always been open to women. We call our female priests
or monks sadhuis. As a rule the sadhuis don’t speak in front
of men; the sadhus speak before male and female audiences; however
the
Jain Acharya or Guru Maharaj [head priest] may appoint a woman to speak
at Jain assemblies.
RB: Are the Jains still prohibited from eating
such root vegetables as potatoes, carrots and radishes as well as garlic
and onions?
MNV: It is a cardinal Jain precept that one should
never kill any form of life. It is our belief that while these root
vegetables are growing underground, they have an infinite number of
organisms attached to them. By uprooting them, one is disrupting their
lives and killing them. This is contrary to the first Jain precept
against
taking life. That’s why we don’t eat root vegetables. Our
stomach is not a burial ground for dead bodies.
RB: How do you deal with mosquitoes, termites,
bed-bugs and crop-destroying pests?
MNV: According to Jainism, even these bugs have souls;
so one must deal with them very gingerly.
RB: What if you were besieged by a cloud of
mosquitoes one night?
MNV: I would sweep them away with my whisk broom [rajoharam].
If they really got bad, I would sleep under a mosquito net; but there
is a difference between my killing them and their committing suicide.
(laughter)
RB: Is the Jain layman as strict in his dietary
habits as a Jain priest?
MNV: No, not everyone is so strict. There are gradations,
but everyone is a strict vegetarian. We never wear leather, but some
of our garments are made from wool. We justify that by reasoning that
wool grows on top of the animal; so that to remove it is not causing
the animal any deprivation. Anyway, artificial fabrics are now rendering
the wearing of wool obsolete.
RB: Did the concept of ahimsa originate with
the Jains?
MNV: It began with Jainism. Jainism goes so far as
to say that you should be concerned not only for the well-being of
people,
animals and bugs, but also for the well-being of the soil, the water
and the air: ahimsa extends to all of nature. Jainism has always been
very ecology-minded. We should be unstinting in our efforts to care
for all life forms — even stones, soil, trees, water and air,
which by the lights of Jainism are also sentient beings.
RB: Yes, but aren’t some beings more
sentient than others? How would you weigh the life of a man against
the life of a stone?
MNV: Jainism divides the world into five classes of
beings whose membership in each class is determined by the number of
senses that each being possesses. The highest class is that of the
five-sensed
beings, which comprises people and the higher animals such as monkeys,
parrots, dogs, horses, elephants, pigs etc. The next class consists
of four-sensed beings who are thought to lack the sense of hearing;
they include the larger insects such as flies, bees and grasshoppers.
The next class comprises three-sensed beings such as moths, ants, mosquitoes,
etc. that lack the senses of hearing and seeing. The third group consists
of two-sensed beings such as mollusks, crustaceans, worms, etc. who
have only the senses of touch and taste. The final group of one-sensed
beings includes trees, rocks, water, wind and fire — these too
are sentient beings and as Jains we have an obligation to treat them
with the same respect and care that we accord to any other life form.
RB: Do the Jains hold the view that one can
be reincarnated in a higher or lower life form?
MNV: Basically, your karma in this lifetime determines
what you will become in your next lifetime. If you’ve been a
slaughterer in this lifetime, then you may be slaughtered in the next
lifetime.
There are no levels of incarnation; one life form is not held to be
higher or lower than another. All are sacred.
RB: What is a typical meal for a Jain monk?
MNV: The food must be fresh: We cannot eat food that
has been stored overnight.
RB: Is that because leftover food attracts
more micro-organisms, more bacteria, hence more life-forms?
MNV: That’s correct. If I want to eat something,
I will go to a Jain home and I will eat the food that has been prepared
for me — but as I said, it must be fresh, and it cannot contain
root vegetables. It’s considered an honor for a Jain family to
provide sustenance for a Jain monk. They invariably try to give us
more
food that we can eat in order to obtain more blessings.
RB: What are some of the rules that govern
your life as a Jain priest?
MNV: When we travel we must walk barefoot everywhere.
We are not permitted to touch a woman; we are not allowed to touch money;
we never eat after sunset; twice a year I must pluck out all the hair
on my face and scalp.
RB: Why do you pluck out all your facial and
scalp hair?
MNV: To increase parishaha [endurance of pain]. Parishaha
strengthens the spirit and reduces karma.
RB: You don’t touch money. Is money
considered to be intrinsically evil?
MNV: No, money has the potential to be either good
or evil; but, it is so volatile that we cannot run the risk of touching
it for fear of contamination.
RB: Do the Jains still make it a point to pursue
innocent professions such as commerce and teaching in order to avoid
jobs which necessitate killing life forms?
MNV: In the old days, this was strictly true; but
nowadays many Jains are not so careful about the sort of work they
do so long
as it pays them a good salary. Unfortunately, they don’t realize
that if they fail to follow the precepts of their religion, even in
the workplace, they will never gain enlightenment.
RB: Jains are not permitted to own pets — is
this because it would be an intrusion in their lives, a meddling with
their karmic destiny?
MNV: As a rule Jainism discourages the keeping of
pets; however, if you decide to keep a pet, you are not really committing
any great infraction of the rules. But we feel it is best not to interfere
in the lives of animals. They should be allowed to live free and unimpeded.
Of course, when animals have been mistreated or abandoned, we believe
in looking after them. We have a long tradition of establishing hospitals
and rest-homes for animals. Jains all over India make a practice of
going to slaughterhouses to try and rescue animals that are about to
be butchered. For thousands of years we Jains have operated special
institutions that are called pinjarpols for the care and protection
of helpless and decrepit animals. There is scarcely a single town in
Rajasthan or Gujerat that doesn’t have a pinjarpol. We take care
of stray cows, pigs, goats, sheep, birds and insects — all creatures
irrespective of economic considerations. We keep veterinarians on hand
to look after the animals regardless of cost.
RB: Do you think Jain ethical principles will
spread throughout the world?
MNV: Jainism is a very deep and demanding religious
philosophy. There are only a select group of people who are lucky enough
to have it as their religion and are capable of practicing it. Even
the “Three Jewels” of Jainism — right thinking, right
knowledge and right practice — are too difficult for most people
to follow. Jainism is particular to India, which is a very sacred place.
In India there is a religion in every grain of sand.
Rynn Berry is the author of Famous Vegetarians
and Their Favorite Recipes. This interview has been abridged from
his forthcoming book, Devout Vegetarians: Conversations with Vegetarian
Representatives of the World’s Religions to be published in
Spring 1995. You can order Famous Vegetarians from Rynn Berry
for $16.95 postpaid at 159 Eastern Parkway 2H, Brooklyn, NY 11238.
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