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Rights to Jain monks' last rites sold for millions

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
MUMBAI: He had barely shut his eyes and crossed his legs in a meditative padmasana when pain flashed through his chest. In a quiet hamlet of Nadiad in Gujarat, Hemratna Suri Maharajsaheb, spiritual mentor to lakhs of Jains, died last Friday. The next morning, more than 15,000 Jains thronged to the tiny temple town of Shahapur in Maharashtra. Many of them were there for a unique community ritual: to bid for the right to perform the last rites of the 58-year-old Jain monk.

The bidding was spirited, and the amount spiralled steadily. Eventually, an Ahmedabad-based land developer, Kalpesh Shah, lit the pyre after paying the perfectly symmetrical sum of Rs 11,111,111 (165,837 USD). The monk's relatives, though present, were treated no differently from the thousands who attended the funeral because when Hemratna Suri Maharajsaheb took his lifetime vow of diksha decades ago, he had renounced the world and all its comforts, familial and material.

The practice of bidding or "ghee bolo" started 450 years ago to catalyse community charity. "At that time, devotees didn't contribute even a penny to the temple box. So something had to be done to raise funds to build more Jain temples and spread the religion," explained Vimal Sagar Maharajsaheb, a Jain monk. "That was when the idea of “ghee bolo” (roughly translated: how much you bid for clarified butter) emerged. Initially, it took place only as and when resources were needed, but over the years it has become a regular ritual."

Hirabhai Parekh, who heads the Kalapurna Suri Smarak Sangh, said that big-ticket bidding is usually associated with those who have a huge following. "There may be one or two cases a year where it could run into crores. For monks who are not senior or acharyas, smaller sums are asked for, and this is as frequent as twice a month," said Parekh.

According to Babulal Jain-Ujwal, a Kandivli resident who is a veritable fount of information on Jainism, about 350 monks die each year. Jain-Ujwal maps yearly data of the initiation and whereabouts of Jain monks and publishes and distributes palm-sized booklets within the community. Last year, he said, approximately 250 monks passed away. His data shows that close to a thousand Jains take diksha every year, in a woman-to-man ratio of 3:1. Of the 13,947 monks residing in temples and upashreyas, 10,654 are sadhvis, he said.

Various aspects of the funeral rites are bid for separately. For instance, while Kalpesh Shah may have performed the “agni daan” (lighting the fire) in Shahapur last Saturday, there were other bidders for other “antim sanskaras” or last rites. Four families carried the bier, another devotee carried the monk's body to the pyre and the second-highest bidder circled the pyre with a pot of water on his shoulder. Each had bid several hundred thousand rupees for the honours. In this case, the entire collection will be used to build a temple at Shahapur, but often the “ghee bolo” money goes to secular causes such as eye-donation, animal shelters and education.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...rites-sold-for-crores/articleshow/4493716.cms
 
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