Every now
and then, there comes news that 10-12 years old kids receive diksha and become Jain monks. The kids very vivaciously talk about how he/she is
ecstatic about their diksha and they
also talk about how the materialistic world and life is futile. I don’t think
that 10-12 years of age has enough repository of knowledge to deduce that the
mundane world is worthless.
They speak
what they have been instilled into their minds.
Though, I am
not that erudite on the Jain philosophy,
I would like to share that I feel this tradition a bit cruel on part of the
children who take diksha at the
tender age. I mean what horrendously wrong they found with the world at this
tiny age that they say that this world is illusion and real bliss is in
becoming a monk. At this age when children cry at the separation from parents
while going to hostel, these children get separated from the world. What psychological
upheaval they must be going through…I wonder. The media only reports at the time of the diksha reception that is a gala time
with throng, no one cares to read the mind of these kids when they start
leading a life in an insulated world.
If these
children are emotionally so strong at this stage that the effect of separation
is zilch then hats off to them but what happens to these tender minds when the
effect of separation is debilitating.
I am not
against the tradition of diksha but
at least the diksha recipient should
have the experience of boons and banes of body up to an extent where they can themselves
decide whether they want to continue with the ways of body or not. And the same
is with life. Until there is a substantial amount of experience in the kitty of
life, it is kind of unreasonable to tell that worldly life is worthless. The kids
should be given a chance to lead a normal life at least till twenty or twenty-five
years of age and if after that anyone decides with a mature perception of world
to renounce the worldly affairs, then I don’t see any problem with it.
I understand
that life is in different layers and spiritualism is one of that. And given the
undulating nature of life that entails happiness along with unbearable pain and
suffering, spiritualism is the final recourse for a frazzled soul. But to
introduce kids as young as ten or twelve is like stunting the natural happiness
of human mind and body and replacing it with a distant promised blissful enlightenment.
Receiving Diksha must be solving some issue of
humanity but I think that it must be also leaving some issues of a tender mind unresolved
and entangled. Despite all the razzmatazz created around the diksha of kids, I fail to feel the same frenzy.
The kids should be given a chance to grow a normal life at least till twenty or
twenty-five years of age.
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P.S: This
post is written with the angle of worldly wisdom so it can miserably fail on the touchstone
of spiritual yardsticks.
