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Why Jain billionaires choose monkhood
at the peak of their lives
By Jumana Shah, India Today, Apr 17, 2024
Gujarat's Bhavesh Bhandari and his wife recently went viral for giving away Rs 200 crore
of their wealth and choosing a life of renunciation
A recent viral video shows a young Jain couple coursing 4 km through Himmatnagar, a town in Sabarkantha in north Gujarat, on an elaborate carriage on wheels, dressed in wedding finery and showering currency notes on crowds. This is a customary rally taken out before a person is initiated into ‘diksha’, the life of an ascetic Jain monk, wherein they leave behind all worldly belongings and emotional attachments to pursue a life of renunciation.
This weekend, it was Bhavesh Bhandari and his wife who made news for giving away Rs 200 crore of their wealth in a ceremony in February. Later this month, they will take their vows and commence their monastic life.
Bhandari is a realtor by profession. In 2022, their 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son had taken diksha.
There are any number of stories of wealthy diamond businessmen and textile traders giving up their worldly possessions, children as young as eight years being initiated into this life through a rather popular process called Bal Diksha, and educated professionals, spunky teens and young mothers taking diksha to live like a monk. As a Jain monk, they break all family ties, do not wear stitched clothes or footwear, cannot use vehicles and electricity, individually pluck out every strand of hair from their head, live in spartan temporary community dwellings called Upashray and humbly seek every meal as alms from Jain houses daily.
The essential idea of taking diksha is to seek salvation for the soul or spiritual cleansing. It is believed that renunciation of the material world and desires will rescue the spirit from the cycle of rebirth.
Every year, thousands of people from all classes of the society are believed to be taking diksha across the country, but it is only the stark contrast created by the wealthier ones that makes headlines. In December last year, 24 people collectively took diksha in Surat—the youngest 20 years old and the oldest 72.
In January 2023, in Surat, nine-year-old Devanshi Sanghvi, elder daughter of a multi-millionaire diamond baron, took diksha, and in August, another wealthy diamond merchant Dipesh and Pika Shah, aged 51 and 46 respectively, ascended into a life of monkhood, riding a Jaguar in their farewell ceremony. Five years ago, their 12-year-old son rode to his diksha in a Ferrari. Similarly, in December in Dahanu, Maharashtra, 13-year-old Keli Punamiya took diksha, becoming the 19th member in her extended family to do so.
A researcher on Jainism requesting anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media, says: “The life of a Jain monk is a well-documented scientifically researched process. As people get worldly success, they get entangled in an endless spiral of disappointment, dissatisfaction, envy and greed. This life of renunciation makes one realise that the happiness we chase is only within,” he says.
Avan Aval Adhu 601
“We're not moments, you and me. We're events. You say you might not be the same person you were a year ago? Well, who is? I'm sure not. We change, like swirling clouds around a rising sun.” ― Brandon Sanderson
The same sun comes up from down under or bursts forth on the Eastern seaboard every morning. It is that same sun that appears and evokes poems and quotes and wise sayings when you witness its glory and yet it feels new. We call the time of its arrival a new day, a new beginning and a chance for starting a new life.
How has the sun changed and what has changed in our lives and our eyes on Earth, that makes us consider the dawn as a new day?
The sun rose over Perumalvaram forest when in fact it was the blue planet of ours that moved its face down and let the earthly creatures believe that Lord Surya was racing across the blue skies in a white chariot pulled by white steeds.
The rotation of our planet moved the continents and one by one every nation but the lands presented themselves to the Big Boss star and gifted themselves with a new day and a new dawn.
It took the earth Three and a half hours to spin on its axis and present Paris to the sun for India being in the east is that much ahead in time when compared to France.
At exactly 6.30 am the staff of the The Cemetery of the East, better known as the Père-Lachaise Cemetery began arriving even though it was dark and sunlight would shine through a couple of hours later.
The head of security was Andre, a well-respected man and one who had served the dead of the cemetery for more than 30 years. He was due for retirement in a couple of years and yet he arrived as he had done on the first day, on time and as always the first one to report to work.
Andre looked at Alain who lay sprawled on the small couch and cursed, ' He is supposed to be patrolling the grounds and instead he is here totally drunk and dead to the world'.
Shaking Alain's shoulder, Andre yelled loudly, ' Go home now. Your shift is over.'
The drunken man groaned and complained loudly and begged Andre to let him sleep for a few more minutes.
' Boss, we both know it will be another 30 to 40 minutes before the others crawl in for duty. So, please, let me sleep a little longer while you go and finish your tiring early morning patrol.'
Closing his eyes and covering his face with the thick quilt, Alain's voice was muffled as he complained to Andre.
' Boss, it was a quiet night as always and bitterly cold. So, I came back here and fixed myself a drink, which led to another one. Don't worry for none of the dead have come alive and walked away. All of them are present and dead in their graves. See for yourself.'
Andre, the head of the staff that maintained the world-famous cemetery, muttered angrily, ' In the end, it is not about what happens or what does not happen here and it is all about doing your duty. That is the mark of a decent human being ' and left the drunk Alain to sleep his stupor off.
Secretly, Andre did not mind his morning patrol around the cemetery and far from it being a chore, he had come to enjoy the solitary walk for it helped exercise both his mind and body and served as a sort of meditation.
In the fog-covered gloom, Andre slowly began his walk from the main entrance built in 1825 by architect Étienne-Hippolyte Godde, which is of neo-classic architecture, showing the early connections of the site with architecture and art.
Andre's surname was Fournier and had a meaning to it as did most surnames in France. His surname meant a person who worked in or owned a bakery, from the Old French term "four," meaning oven. But as far as he was concerned his connections with bakers and bakeries stopped with buying and eating their products.
His grandfather had been a baker but all that had changed with the German occupation during World War Two. Neither he nor his bakery survived the Nazi evil they had lost everything including many members of their family.
Andre remembered his father reminiscing about that dark chapter concerning German Occupation and how his Grandfather had taken to policing and his father had followed suit. Both his parents had been killed in a train accident when he had just turned eleven and it had been his grandfather who had become his guardian when he was at an age when he needed someone to look after him.
Nevertheless, his Grandpa had done a stellar job before passing away peacefully in his sleep and he now lay buried in the very same Pere Lachaise cemetery where his parents lay buried after permission had been granted in recognition of their service to their country.
This was one of the main reasons why Andre had chosen to work as security in one of France's largest cemeteries even though the pay had been low compared to other lines of work. The other reason for Andre working there was that when he passed on he knew that he too would be buried in the same plot where his parents and Grandparents waited for him patiently.
Andre Fournier was liked and respected by his security staff because of his kind and gentle nature and the calm and composed manner in which he dealt with any problem that arose, no matter its magnitude.
Unlike most people, Andre Fournier felt very comfortable in the cemetery and he considered himself very lucky to have gotten this job, for along with his parents and grandparents who lay buried there, some of his favourite singers and writers lay there too. Permanently. Not a day passed by and it mattered not whether it was burning hot of summer or chilling cold of winter, without Andre stopping for a moment at the graves of Chopin and Edith and greeting them and wishing them well. In their new life, hopefully.
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