Student nun

 student nun

anything in extreme………

aditi is studying in8th standard in a prominent school in mumbai

she is a jain.

born to a life of religious rituals fasting

her father encouraged his two daughters to participate in religious activities, earning him pride within his community. While their school was among Mumbai’s top-most schools, he didn’t insist they go regularly because religious education at home was a priority.

her elder sister Bhavna has already become a nun in a sub sect ofthe main swetambara sect

when she was 18 bhavna decided tolive the life of a nun

her parents prminent busness family and grandparents agreed to her calling.they felt proud that their family will be in the limelight

during the summer school vacations this year, bhavna was packed off for two months to a school in Gujarat, where disciples enroll to attain nunhood.

after due preparation she completed the ritual of renunciation or initiation – dīkṣā

and the ritual of keśa-loca – ‘pulling out of the hair’ – which indicates indifference to the body.in a separate room bhanvnas head was shaved leaving a small tuft which she had to pull out strand by strand(of course smearing ash at the roots helped ease thepain)

makes the hair smoother, relieves pain and has a soothing effect.) The hair-plucking ceremony took place in private, with the initiate emerging dressed as a nun once her hair had been completely removed.

The fledgling nun then performed the Five Great Vows – mahā-vrata.

Finally, the initiate received a new name and the monastic equipment associated with the monastic order she had just joined. The names had an auspicious meanings. Puṇya-vijaya “victory of merits”

the nun started her new mendicant life with the broom and water pot

aditi eas entranced by the whole show she too decided to take steps towards renouncing her materiallife

and take diksha at a later stage . her parents did not agree to this as they had fufilled their social committment through their elder daughter.

she had already practised fastinng 20 days in the previous year and 10 days the year during holy months before

she now decided to go for alonger period of 70 days living om just hot water.under the ‘tapasya’ ritual practised by her community

This fact was known only to her family, relatives and close friends.

it was her breakfast and lunch. Some of her classmates knew she was on fast, but did not know she ate no food at all and was surviving only on those few gulps of water. she told only her close friend

I did not ask God for any favors for myself. I kept reciting my favorite prayer Navakar Mahamantra, and all that I was thinking of in my own small way was that I could ask God to give peace to everyone.”

After the first week of fasting, she became withdrawn and lost interest in studies. Back at her home she watched TV, lay around, drank more boiled water for dinner, and went off to sleep. From the 30th day of her fast, Aditi stopped going to school altogether.

Her parents didn’t object. Her mother dressed her up every day like a princess, while she recited religious texts.

she was adamant on completing the70da y fast.

her mother and her father objected at first. they knew She cannot survive so many days, , but it was either allowing her to fast or promising to let her take diksha at a later stage, which theydid not want.

Eva entered the final week of her fast, she had already shed over 25 pounds and her weight had dropped to 110. Eva looked frail, “but there was joy on her face,” Doshi said. “We could look into her eyes and feel she had indeed been fasting, taking only water, and that too never after sunset.”

“In our tradition, we believe that if a person ends a fast days before the target because of medical reasons or an unforeseen emergency, that person will get the punya [blessings] for the intended period,” Doshi adds.

“She is not a kid who craved attention,” he said. “She did not even want any felicitation by the congregation.”

After breaking her fast, she had been on a liquid diet for two days when her condition deteriorated. “In the wee hours of October 4, she fell unconscious probably because her blood pressure and other vital parameters dipped. She was emaciated and weak and several factors led to a cardiac arrest while she was being brought to the hospital.

moments before the girl collapsed said that though Aradhana appeared to be sinking, the family didn’t call a doctor but advised her to take rest.

After her death, the affluent Samdhariya family held a grand funeral procession called ‘shoba yatra’, attended by hundreds. Members of the Rajasthani Marwari Jain community as well as business friends of the family attended the funeral. Aradhana was cremated with much fanfare.

Aradhana never appeared weak or tired. “There was a glow and radiance on her face. We never had to call a doctor. Strength was God’s gift to her.”

Every day, family members said, a few of them would visit Aradhana, bless her and say a few encouraging words.

“Unfortunately, for a few members in the community, religious activities are a source of pride. Samdhariya is one of them. This was all done for prestige and standing in society.”

Among the larger Marwari Jain and Kutchi Jain community too, there is outrage since the circumstances of her death became known. “In some families, children fast for eight days. I am surprised Aradhana was allowed to fast for 68 days. Not only was she a minor but a human body cannot sustain for so long,

the ritual of ‘tapasya’ that Aditi undertook is the first of the nine steps (nav-pad) aimed at attaining salvation, and is not the same as the more controversial ritual of ‘santhara’, whereby the elderly or the sick abstain from food until they die.

The other eight steps towards salvation include (character), (knowledge), (faith) and ( vanquishing all inner enemies while still within the body).

“There are various forms of fasting as part of tapasya — one can do it on alternative days, or two days, four days, 18 days, 34 days and 68 days or even more, depending on the capacity of individual. But there is no pressure on anybody to do it and it is purely voluntary,” insisted a Jain leader .

The objective of tapasya is self purification and atonement from sins

Death is not an objective for tapasya and the duration of the fast is generally pre-determined

People from all age-groups undergo tapasya, with the duration of the fast ranging from one day to even two months or more. No restrictions on the upper limit

At the end of tapasya, a person can go back to the daily routine of his life

By undergoing rigorous fasting without any materialistic elements, tapasya aims to centralise all the energy in the body

An important aspect is the duration of it has to be according to the physical capacity of the person who is vowing to do it .

Aradhana reportedly fasted for 34 days last year, surviving on water for the period. But her longer fast proved fatal. According to a family acquaintance, she broke her fast by taking juice and continued to be on liquid diet for the next two days, until she complained of stomach ache, collapsed and was proclaimed dead on being brought to hospital.

“Even if it was a voluntary decision of Aradhana, the parents should have stopped her since doing fast for such a long time would lead to death,”

the mass practice in which thousands of people observe tapasya across the country and gain a lot of benefit. There is hardly any death,” she explains

many Jains are happy to allow children – some as young as 11 or eight – to give up all worldly life for complete asceticism in a controversial practice known as bal diksha. This is a practice that requires children to give up school education, family life and material pleasures and take up the austere life of monks. Supporters of the bal diksha claim children are never forced into it – they are allowed to become ascetics only if they want to.

Should a child be allowed to take such a decision, though? Jains themselves are divided on this issue, and the legality of bal diksha is still being disputed in the Bombay High Court. But disappointingly, in 2009, the Delhi Women and Child Development Department actually recognised bal diksha as a religious right.