Mansi Choksi and Hemali Chhapia | tnn
When the 'Diamond King' rode on a silver chariot and tossed hundreds of red velvet packets containing diamonds into the crowds, he lived up to his moniker. It was a fitting farewell to the material world by 30-year-old Walkeshwar resident Atul Shah. When he took the vow of diksha (renunciation), the Jain monk Hittaruchi Vijay Maharajsaheb was born. The business tycoon was renouncing his multi-crore company, his family, his house and all the comforts of the world, even footwear. He stepped off the chariot to embark on a journey that required him to pluck his hair, wrap a white linen cloth around his body, and live the life of munis.
Dhruvesh Jhaveri, now a BMS student at Jai Hind College, can recall the day his mother decided to take diksha. Often, when she talked about renunciation, her family would change the topic. It was a year-and-a-half before they relented. "She had a very strong bent of mind towards Jainism, and it seemed as if it was her calling," says Dhruvesh. adding that he couldn't hold back the tears that day in 2001 when she walked out of the house forever.
"I was too young to understand, and so I started crying. But then, the elders sat me down and explained why I should let her go," says the 21-year-old. Before leaving her posh sea-facing residence on Walkeshwar Road, she paused to seek her son's consent one more time. "It was only after I said okay that she left us, it was a very beautiful day," recalls Dhruvesh.
An increasing number of Jains are renouncing the good life and taking diksha. Every year, almost 2,000 persons from the Jain community take diksha in India. In 1986, there were 9,426 monks, and their numbers rose by a mere 836 over the next decade. Today, initiates like 68-year-old Malad resident Rasikbhai Babaria, a successful businessman who took diksha last week, have pushed the number up to a whopping 14,000. This despite the fact that there are about 1,200 deaths among Jain monks each year.
Equally remarkable is the preponderance of women - three times more than the number of men - taking diksha. Of the 13,947 Jain monks currently living in temples and upashreya, 10,654 are sadhvis. Upashreya do not have even the most basic material comforts like electricity or cushioned beds. Devotees cannot enter these before removing the batteries from mobile phones. They cannot even take in battery-powered watches.
Yet, these extreme rigours seem to be no hindrance to those who have made up their minds. When students in the remote Gujarat village of Dabhoi were asked to write about their ambition, an eight-year-old boy said he wanted to be a Jain monk. Ho came from a village 300 Jain families called home, and where 140 people had taken diksha, the sure path to moksha (salvation). His parents, too, wanted to take diksha.
A development in a tiny hamlet in Alwar, Rajasthan, seems to bear out his argument. Some time back, the villagers had trouble deciding which was the greater reason to rejoice - the fact that a youngster had brought the village fame by ranking third nationwide in the tough chartered accountancy exam or that he had simultaneously chosen to renounce the material world and become a monk. Today, Pramod muniji would have been making a few lakhs a month. Instead, he inspires his listeners in a sermon hall in Kandivli (East) to reassess the meaning of their lives.
Statistics also indicate that 'group dikshas' (more than one person taking the vow together) are on the rise.
In 2006. a group of no less than 58 took diksha at Kundalpur, Madhya Pradesh, under the guidance of Vijay Sagarji Maharajsaheb. About eight years ago, 38 people came together to take diksha in the holy town of Palitana, Gujarat, under the mentorship of Gunratan Suriji Maharajsaheb. On the other hand, bal dikshas, or dikshas by minors, have dropped drastically "The number of small boys and girls taking diksha is dwindling. The largest number of dikshas come from the age group of 18 to 27 years, followed by those in their early thirties," says Gunsunder Vijayji Maharajsaheb.
It's borne out by the records of Babulal Jain-Ujwal, a Kandivli resident, who is a veritable fount of information on diksha and monks.
He maps yearly data of the initiation and whereabouts of Jain monks, and publishes palm-sized booklets and distributes them within the community. His small set-up is stacked with records dating back to 1979. Only a few days before going into print with his booklet, Jain-Ujwal still finds himself counting. Whether it's the responsibilities of being a mother or the five-star comfort of living the life of a diamond merchant, the peace of being free of all attachments seems to be beckoning many.