Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
Before I delve deeper into this topic, let me define a few commonly used terms.
- Silk Factory: It is a slaughterhouse of three-sensed insects. The generally understood slaughterhouse that we all understand is for five-sensed non-human beings, but a silk factory by all definition is also a slaughterhouse. In fact, a silk factory is a much bigger slaughterhouse because here practically infinite numbers of three-sensed insects are slaughtered to satisfy some human’s wants, not needs.
- Dealers in real silk: These are the dealers of products from slaughterhouses (silk factory).
- Users of real silk in all reality are nothing but users of the meat coming out of theses slaughterhouses.
The above is a reality. No sugar coating or different terminologies can change or hide the reality.
Unfortunately a significant number of Jains (of all ages and both genders) engage in the above in some combination. Jains use and trade in real silk and silk products extensively. There are thousands of silk saree shops in India owned by Jains. Not only silk is used by ladies (sarees and related body wear), by men (kurtas, jackets, coats, scarves, neck ties), in home furnishings (for curtains, draperies, carpets and rugs), but also in temples for poojas as some people consider it purer than cotton dhotis and sarees.
The complete process of silk making is purely of himsa. Silk is nothing but practically the skin of millions of two- to three-sensed silk worms (these are specially reared in factories and farms), which are boiled alive in hot water to extract silk thread.
My brothers and sisters, I am not kidding. I personally have toured several silk factories and seen the rearing of silk worms and also witnessed all this killing with my own eyes.
There are a significant number of Jains who either don’t believe or don’t want to believe that silk comes from the dead bodies of silk worms. This is similar to many meat eaters who don’t connect that meat comes by killing live animals. In the case of silk, one should take a tour of a silk factory. I have done that. This will be an eye opener. One can search at any of the websites such as Google to know where silk comes from. Below is information from one such search from a web site:
Silk is the material produced by the silk worm to make its cocoon. While there are several types of silkworm, it’s the mulberry silk worm that is used to make commercial silk. They’re called mulberry silk worms because they feed off mulberry leaves. The mulberry silkworms yield the most quantity of silk. Shortly before the silkworm is going to eat its way through the silk of the cocoon, the worm is killed so the cocoon can be un-raveled into a single thread. Silkworms produce silk when they grow from worms, into their adult stage: a moth. In between these stages, the silkworm spins a single thread of silk around itself, which eventually hardens into a cocoon to protect it during this transformation. This silk is excreted from the salivary glands. The worm is boiled alive during this stage (I personally saw this being done) before the silk is removed. If it were allowed to grow and emerge from the cocoon, it would break the cocoon in the process, making it less valuable for silk production (and useless for high quality garment).
ALTERNATIVES:
Many common fibers simulate the look and feel of silk, including nylon, polyester, Tencel, milkweed, seedpod, fiber, silk cotton and celiba tree filament, and rayon.
