indian express
The demise last week of Acharya Mahapragya, the legendary Jain spiritual leader, received paltry and perfunctory coverage in our mass media. How sad. Here was a godly figure, a genuine and persuasive preacher of non-violence, an embodiment of all the virtues of Jainism. Nominally, he was the 10th head of the Jain Swetambra Terapanthi tradition. Yet, transcending all barriers of caste and creed, he embraced the concerns of the entire humanity with his caring heart and penetrating mind. Unlike several New Age preachers, here was an Old Age guru whose personality fully reflected the meaning of his name. Mahapragya means the most knowledgeable. His learned followers, and they belonged to different religions, India’s former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam being one of them, unanimously averred that Acharya Mahapragya was “not merely a Person but also a Purpose, not just a Being but also a Belief”.
Who was this man? What did he strive to achieve during his 90-year-long journey on this planet? Why did he literally Walk His Talk, traversing more than 100,000 km on foot across the length and breadth of India, including 10,000 km of “Ahimsa Yatra” that he undertook in the last decade of his life? Most people remained unaware of the answers to these questions because our newspapers did not deem that his passing away merited more than an obligatory news snippet. I didn’t see a single editorial, nor a befitting obituary in any newspaper. Our TV news channels, which devote endless hours of broadcast time to covering the scandals of fake swamis, didn’t consider it their duty to enlighten the people about this true and towering religious leader.
I had the good fortune of having the Darshan of Acharya Mahapragya on several occasions. The most vivid among them was when, in 2005, my friends and I drove to Ladnun, a small desert town in Rajasthan, where he was staying on the campus of the Jain Vishwa Bharati University. It was a special occasion, the 75th anniversary of his acceptance of Diksha, an initiation ceremony for a disciple by a guru that is common in many religions. There was a lot of excitement in the air since Dr Kalam, who had collaborated with the Acharya on many worthy projects, was going to deliver a message via a video link from Rashtrapati Bhavan. What a reassuring manifestation of the Indian ethos of statecraft and secularism it was to see that the Head of the Indian Republic was seeking the blessings of a holy man, and that too from one who denominationally belonged to a different faith! In 2003, Dr Kalam and the Acharya had joined hands to organise a conclave of senior leaders of all religions in Surat, Gujarat. The “Surat Spiritual Declaration”, which they adopted, envisaged collective celebration of religious festivals; multi-religious development projects for healthcare, employment, environment protection, women’s empowerment and welfare of the needy; value-based education in schools; encouraging interfaith dialogue for peace and harmony; and establishment of the Foundation for Unity of Religions and Enlightened Citizenship (FUREC).
After the video message from Dr Kalam, my friends and I asked the Acharya what he thought was the single biggest challenge before India. He said it was the disconnect between economic growth and ecological well-being, ecology understood here both as man’s outer and inner environment. “Economic growth of the kind being pursued in India and elsewhere in the world has become an end in itself. It is divorced from ethics, righteousness and spirituality. It stands in conflict with man’s responsibility towards his own community and the community of other creatures on Earth. Which is why, human beings everywhere are unhappy.” Acharya Mahapragya, who had succeeded Acharya Tulsi, an equally illustrious Jain seer, was not unaware of the problems in the realm of religion itself. His speech at the Surat conclave is a source of both caution and enlightenment for the followers of all religions. “In the world of religion,” he said, “moral values are not being given adequate importance. Therefore, even a religious man does not hesitate to indulge in evil deeds. In the world of religion, spirituality is being ignored. Therefore, the dream of human unity is not being realized and no refinement is evolving in human relationships. Spirituality is the path of purity of consciousness.”
In a world divided by religious distrust and discord, the Acharya’s articulation of the philosophical basis of inter-faith amity has an enduring global relevance. “The themes of awakening spiritual consciousness and development of moral values,” he said at the Surat conclave, “can serve as an universal platform for all religions. From this platform, all religions can proclaim the message of unity and harmony. There need not be any problem with the fact that the modes of religious worship and devotion are different for each religion. The distance between religious traditions, however, may exist on the basis of rituals and customs. But if we emphasise freedom of thought and devotion to divinity, then, in spite of this distance, we can come closer, sit together on the platform of spirituality and morality, and work together. If we can develop this thought, then a new sun will rise over our world.”
The man who strove for that New Dawn is now no more. But his message will remain alive.