Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
I have said earlier that not many Jains stop, consider, and question the products they wear on their bodies (leather, silk, wool, pearls, corals), use as medicines (vitamins, over the counter and prescribed medicines at home and in hospitals), furnishings in home and in their cars (leather, ivory, silk, wool, animal skins, stuffed animal heads), beauty aids (many cosmetics), entertainment (the use of animals on roadside shows and circuses such as monkeys, bears, elephants, tigers, or lions), or for transportation and joy rides. All of these have a common component—same component, whether severe or less severe, cruelty to helpless creatures, mostly five-sensed.
Still, there are many people both within and outside the Jain community who do understand the nature of cruelty and suffering to animals and diligently try to avoid the use of such products and will find it difficult to believe that so many Jains knowingly participate in such cruelty, but it is true.
- A few years ago, in the home of a Jain leader in the US, I suddenly noticed a lion and tiger skin spread out on the floor of their living room. This was not only for home decoration but also for a show of their opulence.
- About twenty-five years ago, I attended a very large Jain function in a town some fifty miles from New Delhi. After the function, one Jain family invited me, along with a few others, to their house for lunch. Prior to the lunch, after washing my hands, I sat at their large dining table with my back to the washbasin. After finishing my lunch, I again went to the same washbasin to wash and clean my mouth and hands.
While doing so, I looked up towards the ceiling and noticed that right above the washbasin there was the stuffed head of a dead deer, hung for show and display. Believe me: I was shocked. If I had seen that deer’s head prior to the luncheon, I would have refused to eat there and just walked out. Another shock to me was that all those other Jains who were facing the washbasin must have seen the same deer’s head, but they had no reaction and perhaps enjoyed their meals. Is this how far we Jains have come? Nobody says anything, even to another Jain, and it continues.
Now you decide: is this behavior consistent with ahimsa?
