Tuesday, December 15, 2009

My Views On Conversion to Jainism

My Views On Conversion to Jainism

In reply of the renowned scholar Kancha Illaiah, Hem Raj Jain has suggested that oppressed classes may try Jainism. That is a good concept, and some great Jain Acharyas have already executed this idea. For instance, late Acharya Nanalalji Maharaj successfully initiated hundreds of thousands of people from Meghwal/ Balai (Bhangi) community into Jainism in Malawa region of North India. These neo-Jains are known as Dharmpals, and are staunch Jains.

Similarly, another great Jain Acharya converted about one lakh of butchers (Hindu Khatik) into Jainism. That was a great work, as the butchers were directly involved in killings of animals, and it was their occupation. They threw away this occupation and adopted other non-violent occupations. These people now are known as Veervals.

Acharya Vijay Indra Din Suri, who was born in a tribal community, converted about Half a Million tribals into Jainism in Gujarat. These converted tribal people are known as Kshatriy Parmar Jains.

In Eastern states of India like Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar, there is a community known as Saraak, which was follower of Jainism in ancient and medieval times and was converted to Hinduism thereafter, is now again returning to their original religion, i.e. Jainism. Thanks to the missionary work of some great Jain monks and activists.

All the neo Jains I have mentioned above are following Jainism in right manner.

Now, my views about Hem Raj Jain’s article. Although his concept is right one, there are many flaws in his thinking. He has mentioned Jainism as a sect of Hinduism. That is not a right thing and this issue has been discussed for a lot of times. Then why he thinks so? Some of his views clearly indicate that he is a Saffron man, probably belonging to RSS. These people always want to keep oppressed people away from Hinduism. No matter if oppressed people adopt Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism, their only wish is that they should not get converted to Islam and Christianity.

These people always mention that Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism are sects of Hinduism, but they never talk about the status of Vedic religion in Hinduism. Why they never say that Vedic religion is a sect of Hinduism? Their theory is: Jainism is a sect of Hinduism, Hinduism means Vedic Religion, and so Jainism is a sect of Vedic religion.

Hem Raj like to use the word ‘transformation’ instead of ‘conversion’. But he should know that both the words have the same meanings. By the way, why these people do not ‘transform’ the oppressed people to the Vedic religion instead of showing them the Buddhist or Jain way?

Hem Raj has mentioned that 85% of 1200 millions India are Hindus. It is the biggest fake statement in his article. Deduct 12% Muslims, 2.5% Christians, 2% Sikhs, 1% Jains, 1% Buddhists, 16% Dalits, 8% Tribals, and 1% others from 100 and the Hindus remain at 56.5%. This percentage too will decrease soon to make Hindus a minority religion as Kshatriyas, the main pillar of so-called Hinduism is awakened and many of them are going away from Hinduism.

-Mahavir Sanglikar
0 962 372 5249
jainway@gmail.com

Please read following articles on related subjects:

Recent Conversions to Jainism
Forced Hinduism

7 comments:

  1. Im an american Male and i would like to convert to Jainism, can I?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Sir

    Sub:- Transformation to Jainism.

    Today I came to know from internet about this response dated December 10, 2009 of Mahavir Sanglikar to my letter “Kancha may try Jainism” to which my response is given below:-

    (1)- I am not a RSS or saffron man and I don’t find any thing wrong rather it is in the interest of Jainism if any body’s wish is that oppressed people should not get converted to Islam and Christianity and instead adopt Jainism

    (2)- I have used the world Hinduism in a wider sense as it has been used in Hindu Marriage Act where Hindu applies to any person who, in addition to other Hindus, is also a Buddhist, Jain or Sikh by religion, and who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.

    (3)- Any body who has objection to this wider sense of Hinduism should try to mobiles High Court or Supreme Court in order to remove such wider definition of Hinduism from the statute. But I believe that there is no need for such judicial action because it does not harm Jainism in any way.

    (4)- It does not matter what saffron man think about Jainism because Jains know the truth. However if Saffron man are happy this way let them be so till it does not harm Jainism and which is not the case any way.

    (5)- The use of word transformation instead of conversion minimizes the chances of violence as I explained in my said letter “Kancha may try Jainism”. When people want to embark on a gigantic noble task then they should always avoid trifle and irrelevant matters which are not fundamental to the cause and they should always try to avoid the chances of violence especially for the cause of non-violent religion, Jainism.

    (6)- Why Jains should object if some people want mass scale transformation to Jainism? Rather Jains should welcome such mindset of these people.

    Therefore I appeal to Sanglikar and other Jains and well wishers of Jainism to embark on the mission of transforming especially Dalits and oppressed & backward castes to Jainism by apart from other work, also by taking up two following programs:-

    (A)- Jains should launch in a big way at all India level (up to villages of reasonable population) the institutions for education and health on the pattern of limited companies where capital will be on charity and revenue will be on the basis of fees and every charity giver (from present non-Jains also) will have share in proportion to his charity.

    (B)- Jains should move High Court and Supreme Court whenever any State or Central government tries (with the assistance of some misguided Jains) to make Jains a minority community because any such deficiency accepted in law on the basis of religion is extremely detrimental to the moral of Jains and which will, in the long run, have derogatory effect on the over all live of Jains, if not rectified.

    I offer my services and am prepared to go any where in India for the cause of this mission and for carrying out the work of these two (A) & (B) mentioned programs.

    Yours truly

    Hem Raj Jain

    jainhemraj59@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. How, and where to change religion in bangalore, please let me know asap..

    ReplyDelete
  4. I dont understand wot is it that we r fighting 4? r we all salesman dat we r tryin 2 promote some religion or the other....?????? go to a muslim/christian/sikh or any other religious website and the same kind of post is there as well....My question is what are we aiming at???? r we aiming at numbers???? did any god tell us that i need certain numbers of people who should follow me? or that all other so called god is actually a satan and i am the only true god and this is the name of my religion???? or that discrimation human being in the name of religion????? do we human even get to know the religion of a person in the first place???? may be we may like a person then we start hating that person in the name of religion..... Just an example.....be it Jain or Buddhist or Sikh or Christian or Muslim we all work and earn livelyhood for our family....but do we care at that time from where our money is cumin????? ppl are workin 4 Wipro or Microsoft or any other MNC but do we care that the boss is a non jain or non hindu.....All in all what i want to say is dat "Being Human" should be our religion and we should never discriminate ppl in the name of religion.....

    Please Note: I myself am a christian and i love my religion....but still i want to convert to Jainism becuase of my faith in this religion.... keeping in mind that i still respect every other religion equally......

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello all,
    I am a jain...
    Now when I am typing this message we have our biggest festival called Pajushan going on...
    So i decided what kind of image does Jainism have in the minds of people..
    It is good as well as sad to know some things...
    It is good to know Jainism is seen as a non-violent religion because non-violence is the core of Jainism.. Violence in any kind is avoided may it be done personally, telling someone to do or helping in any way towards violence,in fact I have been taught that we should not even think of violence, physically as well as mentally one should be non-violent...

    It is sad to know that people have very less or in some cases none knowledge about Jainism..

    I do not want to influence or urge people to convert any one to Jainism, only share what being Jain is all about than the decision is yours...

    1) According to me Jainism is a way of life not just a religion...

    2) Jainism has no gods we only have concepts... We believe in saying of our preachers, Saints, Acharyas and Tirthankars who show us right path...

    3) No Beginning, No end.. The world is eternal that has no beginning and no end that is never ending.. Its your present deeds (Karma in Hindi) that decide your future life.. in a way you are the decider of your future and for that reason we have 5 Basic rules that you can google..

    4) Every living being has soul and every soul is the same and equal no matter what gender, animal, bird, plants, insects, nationality, cast, religion or any thing else only form changes so every one should be held equal and respected.... It is because of this basic principle the concept non-violence has emerged.. So in practice From the small age we were stopped from even killing ants that bite us, every mosquito that sucked our blood.. This is the level of Ahinsa or Non-Violence we practice in our normal life forget about eating Non- vegetarian Food..

    5) Pluralism - Let me tell you Jains in particular are the biggest follower of pluralism. Every time I have any argument or even fight in school or colony where i live, My mother never took my side because she always thinks from others point of view and thinks they are correct, it may be because I may be wrong in some occasions but not always. This example is given from day to day experiences not by reading to any book...in fact today i Came to know we(Jains) have this pluralism concept.. This is why I say Jainism is a way of life not just a religion..

    6) Jainism to the extreme - Some people follow Jainism to the extreme(for some it is extreme and for some it is normal to me it is extreme as I Dont follow it) not even eating Root Plants like Carrot, Potatoes, Onions etc.. There is a valid reason which i agree 100%..
    When you cut your hair you can live and there is no Violence, when you cut you nail you can live and there is no violence but when you cut some ones heart he will surely die leading to Violence.. The same way when you eat a root vegetable you have to kill the plant as well as millions of micro-organisms that directly dependent on that root thus harming millions of soul... I will continue some time in future as i have to leave now bye...


    Nishit Shah.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am interested in knowing the ways of conversion to Jainism.

    Please suggest practical steps 1, 2 ,3 etc so that following the steps is easy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I want to know, the ways of conversion to Jainism. Its critical for my life.

    Please suggest practical steps 1, 2 ,3 etc so that following the steps is easy!

    ReplyDelete

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