Adapting Jainism across the ocean of Covid-19

contributed by Heleen De Jonckheere, 25 May 2022

- saccā jainī kahtā is se ḍaro nā -

Logging into my email from my obligatory home office in May 2020, now already two years ago, I received an email from Jainism Says Blogspot on how to spiritually navigate the Covid-19 pandemic. A few weeks before that, I had come across a YouTube song entitled "Corona se Darona" (“Do not fear from Corona”) by Vicky D Parekh, a Jain singer in India. Although these two digital encounters were quite different in terms of discourse and audience, they both illustrated the global Jain community's quickness in moving their religiosity online and addressed the need to overcome feelings of anxiety and stress brought on by the pandemic. This message fits with the Jain emphasis on equanimity (samāyikā) and is appealing to the broader audience that the blog and the YouTube channel, in their own ways, try to reach.

Jain Scripture Says

Jainism Says Blogspot is a blog curated by a team of diasporic Jains from North-America led by Pravin Shah, the current chair of the JAINA Education Committee. This Committee has been instrumental in the creation and dissemination of educational resources on Jainism not only for Jains in North-America but also for scholars through its jainelibrary website. It is part of the larger Federation of Jain Associations in North America (JAINA) which aims to represent and promote the Jain way of life in the diaspora. The association also promotes the academic study of Jainism and its representation at North American universities, a project from which I, as Bhagavan Sheetalnath postdoctoral fellow (University of Toronto), have also profited. From this background information, it is clear that Jainism Says is made by and for diasporic Jains living in North America whose concerns are influenced by questions of belonging, authenticity, and adherence to aspirations of Western secularism in a way that is different from Indian Jains. The blog’s existence confirms the turn towards digital media among diasporic Jains, which has increased in pandemic times (Vekemans 2020, 2021).

Figure 1 Screenshot from Jainism Says, taken from Blogspot on April 20th 2022

The central questions of the diasporic blogpost about Covid-19 are: What is the Jain philosophy regarding such events? And how can Jain doctrine inform current Jain practice during the pandemic? To answer these questions the post lists five causal factors of actions or events: time, intrinsic nature, predestination, instrumental cause, and determination. Each of these five is then explained in terms of how they apply in life. Although it is not clear from which Jain texts these five factors are taken, the post presents them as stemming from the Jain philosophy, implying that they are grounded in Jain scriptures. This search for answers to modern day issues with reference to doctrinal texts is common within the diasporic Jain communities. For example, on how Jain texts could be applied in dealing with the pandemic several other explorations, including Shugan Jain's Minimizing a Pandemic's Impact, have been circulating online (see also Maes 2022).

In Jainism Says, the applications of these five factors balance between limitations in one's agency on the one hand and self-effort on the other, so that the overall idea better fits lay ideals than the ascetic-focused Jain Āgamas. Finally, the blogpost explains how the pandemic is caused by the five factors together and how a Jain should understand that their life is determined by their own reaction to events like the pandemic. The post explains a Jain’s ideal individual agency in these situations and calls for conduct that is in line with governmental and CDC (Center for Disease Control) guidelines and with a modern understanding of compassion. Here we see another balancing act, namely between an ideology based in karma theory and the interests of a community that sees itself as part of North American society. Also, in its wording, this digital diasporic Q&A on the Covid-19 pandemic is clearly inspired by modern Western ideals of 'owning yourself' and 'self-responsibility', exemplified by sentences such as "We have the power and courage to do the right thing". Finally, it uses a modern rhetoric of social and environmental care when referring to the Jain principle of compassion.

While these new ways of framing Jainism are not necessarily in accordance with Jain doctrinal texts, as scholars such as Paul Dundas, John Cort or Anne Vallely have shown (in Chapple 2002), they display the ways Jains in North America find new meaning in their tradition so that it provides support and a sense of community and belonging in the stressful times of a global health crisis.

A Jain Song for India

The YouTube song "Corona se Darona" was released by Vicky D Parekh in March 2020 concurrently on YouTube and his professional Facebook profile. From how he tagged the song on these two platforms it appears that his primary audience consists of Jain laity. This is especially the case for its Facebook release, where the description states "Jainism – Solution to Dreaded CoronaVirus" and "#Proud_to_be_Jain". His YouTube video is tagged more open to a non-Jain audience, adding words as "Fun+Message" and a statement that the video is only meant for entertainment purposes. By doing so, rather contrastingly with the blogpost of Jainism Says, he refrains from claiming authority with regard to religious issues.

Interestingly, in sharing the video on his Facebook page, the writer of the song's lyrics, Pankaj Goleccha, adds: "While the world is in search of solution for CORONA….Centuries before JAINISM already had the Preventive measures for it" (sic). These words reflect the trend of scientisation that prevails in modern Jainism (see Aukland 2016), a perspective in which Jainism is seen as an ancient (or eternal) knowledge system that provides a scientific method to solve medical or biological problems. Such a perspective is also common in Hindu communities (see (Sinah Kloß’s post on CoronAsur, 28 October 2020). The words by Goleccha are not unsimilar to how the blog Jainism Says refers to the Jain philosophy.

The openness of the song to a non-Jain audience is reiterated in the lyrics of the song and in the accompanying video. Besides including typical Jain phrases such as "Give life to all living beings" (jīne do saba jīvo ko), the lyrics also state "Our civilization is the oldest. Its grandeur is now awakening" (apnī sabhyatā saba se purān, iskī mahimā ab jagane hai jānī). This phrase is reminiscent of Nehru’s Discovery of India (1994 [1946]) rather than of the traditional Jain emphasis on the eternal existence of Jainism as it plays upon the idea that India’s ancient culture is able to give fruitful insights into how to deal with this virus. The same motif of India's unwavering culture is picked up in the song's video where we encounter prime minister Modi saying that at this moment the whole world greets by folding their hands in the Indian namaste gesture, and advising the people of India to indeed do so. Immediately following, the lyrics of the song continue with "You can forget 'Hi', 'hello' and giving hugs".

This contrast between a way of greeting that is perceived as Western and Anglophone, and Modi’s advice of folding hands, repeated in the song with reference to the Jain greeting (Jai Jinendra), invokes a discourse of national sentiment. These different references suggest that Vicky D Parekh views Jainism as being part of the ‘imagined community’ of the Indian nation that is being built-up more fervently and exclusively by the current ruling politicians. Perhaps similar to the diasporic blog post, in reflecting on the pandemic situation this Indian Jain lay singer frames himself and his religious community as part of the larger societal unity in which he lives. On the other hand, the adherence to the Indian nation which has been recognized as stressing its Hindu identity with the co-optation of other 'Indian' religions including Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, contrasts with the diasporic blog's purpose to strengthen particularly Jainism and Jain networks of belonging.

Final thoughts

The two digital snapshots I discussed here of Jain ways of dealing with the pandemic, provide us with commonalities as well as divergences in how to understand possible Jain answers to global health crises. Both digital expressions refer to particular Jain sensitivities in approaching life and life forms, including individual care for all living beings. They also both connect Jains to the larger society of which they are part. Since these societies are differently situated, the two expressions illustrate different understandings of Jainism, one being diasporic and one being Indian. In the latter understanding Jainism is one of the religious interpretations of the larger unified Indian culture, whereas in the first Jainism forms a distinct community of belonging. Together, these ways of dealing with the pandemic show the Jain community's adaptive qualities. As contexts change Jains find new and renewed meanings in their religious traditions. These reinterpretations do not make radically new suggestions, but rather build and affirm preexisting approaches toward the natural environment (see Chapple 2002). The picture one gets, in today's religious approach towards the pandemic as well as from those historical examples, is much less the revolutionary Jain tradition scholars have sometimes imagined for Jainism's early history, and rather a tradition that seeks a space for some of its core principles within a larger context in which it fully participates.

References

Aukland, K. "The Scientization and Academization of Jainism", 84 J. Am. Acad. Relig. (2016), 192-233.

Chapple, Christopher K. (ed.) 2002. Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Goleccha, P., 2020 March 12, Facebook, Retrieved on 22 April 2020, https://www.facebook.com/pankaj.karan.526?__tn__=R

Jainism Says Blogspot. Jainism: Know It, Understand It & Internalize It. 2020 May 26. "Spiritually navigating the current COVID-19 pandemic." Retrieved on 2022 April 15. https://jainism-says.blogspot.com/2020/05/spirituality-navigating-covid-19.html

Maes, Claire. 2022. "Framing the Pandemic: An Examination of How WHO Guidelines Turned into Jain Religious Practices" Religions 13, no. 5, 377.

Nehru, J. 1994 [1946]. The Discovery of India, (sixth impression). Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Parekh, V. D. 2020 March 12. Saccā Jainī Kahtā Vāyras Koronā Se Ḍaronā. Facebook. Retrieved on 22 April 2020. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2618590251694318.

Parekh V. D. 2020 March 11. "Corona se Darona" Fun + Message | Jainism On Corona Virus | Vicky D Parekh | Jain Songs | Latest. YouTube. Retrieved on 22 April 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcw06pwUp08

Vekemans, Tine. 2020. “Jainism on the Internet.” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism, ed. by John Cort et al., Leiden: Brill, 382–90.

Vekemans, Tine. 2021. "Crisis and Continuation: The Digital Relocation of Jain Socio-Religious Praxis during the COVID-19 Pandemic" Religions 12, no. 5, 342.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the blog editorial team or the Asia Research Institute.

back to project's homepage

Dr. Heleen De Jonckheere is a scholar of Jainism. Her current research focuses on the idea of translation and adaptation in the Jain context and in South Asia in general, and on the religious implications of translation. Her further interests include Jain narrative literature, Jain polemics and Jain manuscript culture. Through her interactions with the Jain community, she also thinks and writes about current trends in Jainism, including their presence online and their perspectives in economic behaviour. She received her PhD from Ghent University in December 2020 and continued her work at the University of Chicago. At the University of Toronto, she holds the position of Bhagavan Shitalnath post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for South Asian Civilizations, Department of Historical Studies, Mississauga Campus.

Subscribe To Latest News & Events

Adapting Jainism across the ocean of Covid-19

Asia Research Institute