Diamond heiress to plastic baron — the daily lives of Jain monks & nuns who gave it all up
Monastic life involves walking barefoot, eating a meal a day, & staying away from electricity & modern tech. Goal is to attain moksha from endless cycle of rebirth.
Surat/Girnar/Somnath/Ahmedabad (Gujarat): The Jain religion has an age-old practice of Bal diksha whereby children — sometimes as young as 8 years — leave behind the material world to become monks or nuns, in pursuit of the spiritual goal to attain moksha (salvation) from the endless cycle of rebirth.
The monastic life involves walking barefoot, eating one meal a day, and staying away from electricity and modern technology.
According to the Pew Research Centre, the vast majority of the Jain community belong to affluent families. So, when their children relinquish the material world, it usually means leaving behind secured family enterprises. The lives of most young Jain monks and nuns from Surat have a fascinating back story, as it often means turning away from the diamond business.
ThePrint national photo editor Praveen Jain followed the lives of a few Jain sadhus and sadhvis, most of them from diamond trading families in Surat, to get a closer view of the monastic life. He also tracked the life of Jain children who are undergoing training to check if they are eligible to take the vows of renunciation in the future.