Carlo Torriani

SWARGA DWAR

The conversion of a catholic missionary

presented by

Card. Simon Pimenta

PIME Publications, PIME Regional House, Eluru - 534 0-07, A.P., India

JAINISM

Letter No. 55,  November 1999

Dear Friends,

                    Since Swarga Dwar is an ashram, this year, in May, for the first time we gave hospitality to a group of sadvi, Jain nuns.

    Jainism is a religion older than Christianity. Mahavir, the last of the 24 holy men who started Jainism, was contemporary to Buddha, six hundred years before Christ. Jainism teaches  the way to be victorious (jain) over internal and external nature. Mahavir is not much the founder but the one who best realised victory and enlightenment.

Divinity for them is not a person but a status a condition accessible to everybody who practices the discipline. So there are many saints and gods.

    Jains are those who observe non-violence and vegetarianism in the most strict way. Monks and nuns, for example, cover their mouth with a cloth to avoid swallowing any insect. The followers of this religion, also in India are very few, not even one per cent of the population, less than the Christians, but they had a great influence on Indian spirituality and also on Mahatma Gandhi. They always had  a feminine monastic order. They dress always white and  they keep moving from one place to the other like nomads. They go always on foot and never use vehicles. Only during the four moths of monsoon, when there is heavy rains, they can stop in the same place. Usually they walk at dusk to avoid the scorching sun.

    Often I saw these nuns early morning when I drive from Mumbai to Taloja. Many times I saw them passing out of Swarga Dwar gate,  and I often thought to offer them some water or some hospitality. Well, this year in May, they requested to stop one night in our ashram. We had been very happy: the leprosy patients, persons from whom nothing is asked, happy to offer hospitality; and myself, Christian missionary, happy to know that my ashram was put on the map of Indian religious places. But, to tell you the truth, I was feeling guilty. I did not have the courage to tell them and lest of all to show that we rear animals for food. In their presence I was feeling like a sinner. How many times did I kill snakes, cockroaches and mosquitoes? They never kill not even a fly.

    They never ate with us, since they always carry their own food and water. We did regret this. But in the evening they came to pray with us in our Shanti Sangam where we have also the symbol of Jainism. I invited them to sing their own bhajans for us and to give us the message of Jainism. They taught us one of their prayers that we now recite every Wednesday when we pray with the believers of Jainism.

    In their message they invited us to respect every living creature, also the smallest like an ant, and to be sorry if we cannot. The first sentences of their prayer reflect just this regret of us, superior (?) animals, who cannot live without sacrificing the life of inferior animals. The prayer says:

                  I ask pardon from all living beings of this world.

All the living beings of the universe may forgive me.

All the life of this world, small and big,

Creeping, waking and flying and human beings

Are all my friends.