Digambar Jain monk Tarun Sagar was invited to speak at the Haryana Assembly. As the monk delivered his 40-minute ‘Kadve Vachan’, Twitter went wild after musician Vishal Dadlani tweeted against the monk not wearing a stitch of clothing. Dr Ranjit Chaudhary shares his views.
I just came across Mr. Vishal Dadlani’s comments on Muni Tarunsagarji. To say that I was appalled is to put it rather mildly.
Mr. Dadlani thinks being a nude monk is something that can be joked about. I am a Digambar Jain and, unlike the majority of Indians, I do not believe in wearing religion on my sleeve. But, I have no iota of doubt in my mind that the Digambar Jain monks are the closest you will find to an actual monk.
To brave the natural elements after giving up all material comforts including your clothes, surviving in the harshest conditions on most meagre of diets and pulling out one’s hair as a substitute to haircuts requires unimaginable mental fortitude and determination.
Mr. Dadlani, though, is unlikely to understand the underlying sacrifices courtesy the relative lack of hair above his shiny pate and the absolute lack of brains beneath it.
When I was a kid, I once fervently prayed for something in a Jain temple. My mother told me that if I was wishing for something materialistic, it was unlikely to be granted because the deity himself had given up everything that the material world could offer. The only thing that could be imbued from a Digambar deity was contentment, how to attain maximum happiness with minimum desires and possessions.
Sadly, the philosophy was lost on Mr. Dadlani and all he could visualise was a nude exterior.
Finally, I wonder, would the reaction of some other community be the same if such a blatant insult was heaped on one of their prominent religious leaders?
(Published with permission from Dr Ranjit Chaudhary, who first shared the post on his Facebook page. These are his personal views.)
