By Riya Patel
YOUNG GENERATION
Finding Jainism in Cultures Around the World
Riya Patel is a student at the University of Texas at Austin studying chemical engineering. She has been the YJA South Regional Coordinator in 2020-2021 and loves to be involved in her local Jain community. (This article was originally published in Young Minds Magazine is September 2020)
Growing up, I often struggled with my Indian identity. While attending a predominantly white school in the middle of North Carolina, questions about my “missing red dot” and jokes about being a “Hindu cow worshipper” were a daily occurrence. I let this happen for years — masking my own culture and never correcting, nor educating others about my fascinating religion. It wasn’t until I saw my grandma openly practicing Jainism and her absolute devotion to it that a change occurred within me. From blatantly telling servers she will not eat meat due to religious beliefs to clearly going out of her way in public to avoid stepping on grass — that sparked a realization. Maybe there was no need to hide my cultural and religious beliefs? From then onwards, I began to slowly open-up and have some of the most interesting conversations with others about how aspects of my seemingly uncommon religion can be seen around the world. Japan, Asia
I once was explaining how one of Jainism’s fundamental beliefs is Anekantavada and elaborated on the importance of multiplicity of viewpoints since there is no singular one that is correct. That is when, Aya, my Japanese friend told me about a practice called Kintsugi: when one accidentally breaks a piece of pottery, it is not thrown away, but rather mended back together by applying gold on the cracks to create a new, beautiful piece. She explained how by looking
at the destroyed pottery from a new point of view, it is able to become something more special and valuable than before, but failing to do so would cause this potential artwork to end up in a trashcan. This could be applied to people too. We cannot judge them from what we see, but rather must change perspectives to understand their underlying inner beauty. After hearing from her, I was able to share the story of the six blind men feeling small parts of the elephant and coming up with different ideas of what the creature might be. Seeing how the idea of multiple points of view can completely change one’s reaction to a situation was quite fascinating and emphasized its need to be applied in all situations. Colombia, South America
One of my best friends in middle school was of Colombian descent. Aside from enjoying endless arepas and cheese empanadas at her house, one of the most notable memories with her was when I learned about Tranquilo. I had just dropped my brand new phone and was worried that I cracked it when her mother said nothing but “Tranquilo!” I found out that this is a word very commonly used in Colombia to tell one to not stress over little things and just relax. The idea of not obsessing over materialistic matters reminded me of Aparigraha, the importance of letting go. Much like how Aparigraha is a key part of Jainism, Tranquilo is heavily embedded in the vocabulary of people in Colombia. While for Jains this concept also helps avoid the four key internal passions of Krodha
51
