Dr. Noel Q. King
The writer wishes to acknowledge the help and inspiration of Mr. R.P. Jain, Dr. S. Sulekh Jaina and Surinder S. Singhvi, Tansukh Salgia and L.M. Singhvi. He is also grateful to Mr. John A. Grinnell, McHenry Library, the Academic Senate and Joni Tannheimer of the Word Processing Staff of the university of California at Santa Cruz for their help and encouragement. In collaboration with Dr. Surinder S. Singhvi he has compiled an article entitled “Jain Radiance In The West“ [Jain Radiance On The Western Horizon] which is being published by the Jaina Association in commemoration of Mr. V.R. Gandhi's appearance at Chicago in 1893. That article gives fuller research and bibliographic details to much of the material used in this paper.
Jainism is the religion and way of life of those who follow the Jina,--- "those who have overcome", "conquered". Whom or what have they overcome? Themselves. According to Jainism in every part of the universe there is life capable of perfection, set up for perfection, trying to attain to fullness of being, held back by karmic particles which it is attempting to shed. We should not do anything to hinder that process. From these simple basic principles by the use of rational means, the Jains work out an entire way of life. It means positive harmlessness. "Do not kill," not only because divine commandments forbid killing but because killing is not a loving, rational and appropriate approach. The Jaina thought-system does not need the hypothesis of a personal God who created the world. Yet Jains are not atheists, they recognize divinity in every part of the Universe. They insist there may be differing ways of approach, so they do not quarrel with believers of other kinds.
Their basic principles mean that they have to respect others in every way and eliminate injustice, discrimination, inequality and waste. A person must not give in to the lust of possession and use coercion or exploitation. One is permitted to use or consume that which is strictly necessary. Everything has a right to be fully developed itself and live its own life appropriately. It is not for us to take it over. One must not get unreasonably attached to anything and when our time is accomplished, we must be prepared to give up and renounce the life in which we are. A timely and triumphant death is part of the perfection of a conqueror. Clearly this is a holistic system, "totalitarian," in the best sense of the word everything is involved. The healing, joyfulness, harmony and wholeness of the whole cosmos is fostered and brought into play.
When one tries, however badly and haltingly, to explain this Jaina faith and way of life to a western audience, again and again good people will exclaim: "Why have we not been told of this before?" What a neat religion, how can I learn more?" Actually much has already been told, but until recently only a very few have been in a position of life and heart to respond. The World's Parliament of Religion of 1893 when alone Jaina delegate, Mr. Virchand Raghavaji Gandhi, declared Jainism to the West, can be taken as a convenient center point before and after which our description runs.
Two contemporary collections of documents describing the Parliament are
John Henry Barrows: The World's Parliament of Religions. Chicago: The Parliament Publishing Company, 1893, two volumes, and
Walter R. Houghton: Neelry's History of the Parliament of Religions. Chicago, 1993.
Besides the text both have illustrations which repay study.
A vigorous and spirited portrait of Mr. V.R. Gandhi at Barrows 1225 is especially notable.
Recently, the media and publicity people have made our heads buzz with centenaries, bicentennials, quinquecentennials and millennia. My own head is buzzing with the centennial of the Parliament, with seven decades since "the Indus Valley Civilization was discovered, the half century of Indian Independence and Partition coming up in 1997, the half millennium" since Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498 and west and east began a face-to-face encounter, and 1097 when Mahmud of Ghami launched centuries of Muslim invasions of Hindustan. Of course, the year 2000 is coming up, but let us avoid the temptation of expatiating on that.
The gist of meditations on the deeper meaning of the Parliament including the use of some of the methods of my colleagues in the invention of tradition and debunking school of revisionist historians, cross-fertilized by Apocalyptic insights ranging from the Maccabean Jews to Cargocultists in New Guinea, would take long to tell. There were not only subalternic resurgences of old hegemonies; for those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, behind Mr. Virchand Raghavaji Gandhi stands Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi. In its own way the Parliament gave the same message as the naval victory of Japan in 1905 or the massacre of the Indians at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919. Had western man listened we might have been spared the War of 19l4:.18 and its continuance in 1939-45 and the Cold War. Without doubt the significance of the Parliament is greater than at first appears and the personality and message of the Jaina delegate far from being debunkable, increases in stature and importance as the years pass.
Let us turn to say more about that delegate. Virchand Raghavaji Gandhi was born in 1864 near Bhavnagar in Gujarat. His family was from Cutch. He graduated from Elphinstone College, Bombay and became secretary to the Jaina Association of India.
The sketch is culled from Bhagu F. Karbhari's Speeches and Writings of Virchand R, Gandhi, Bombay: N. M. Tripathi, 1911.
He involved himself in law suits and negotiations on behalf of the community and got himself highly qualified in Anglo-Indian Law. He was a householder whose wife and son were later able to accompany him on his travels. He kept closely in touch with the renunciants of his communion, especially His Holiness Muni Sri Atmaramaji whose base was in the western Punjab.
See Muni Atmaraji: The Chicago-Prashnottara, Agra: Pustak Pracharah Mandal, 1918 (Hindi fist edition 1905).
At the same time he was able to maintain a man-to-man friendship and respect for and with certain kinds of western colonial officials and educationalists. After the Parliament he promoted a Jaina outreach to the western world in both the U.S.A. and Britain which even after his demise was continued and has maintained his integrity and power of creative imagination.
For instance Herbert Warren who was Honorary Secretary of the Jaina Literature Society published Jainism In Western Garb As A Solution To Life's Great Problems London, 1912. It has a commendation from Dr. Herman Jacobi. It is most easily accessible in a reissue by Muni Chitrabanu, Bombay, 1966. Mr. Warren's book has been used as a basic source by the present writer since it is, as its subtitle says, "Chiefly From The Notes And Talks Of Mr. V.R. Gandhi." The story of this Jaina outreach in both North America and Britain has not received the kind of research and publication as that given to the follow-up of the work for example of Swami Vivekananda, but it is to be hoped this omission will be rectified before too long.
The brilliance, selfpossessed reserve and solid achievement of Mr. Gandhi in what must have been very difficult circumstances, strikes the researcher. The message he brought still speaks out loud and clear.