Article: Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin

Discussing the scriptures
Image by Amitjain80 © CC BY-SA 3.0

The Terāpanthins recognise the authority of 32 of the Śvetāmbara canonical scriptures. Influenced by the most recent ācāryas, Tulsi and Mahāprajña, Terāpanthin mendicants have published numerous critical editions, indexes, dictionaries and analyses of these scriptures to a high standard. They have also provided Hindi translations of several texts.

On the other hand, the Terāpanthins are also indebted to early Digambara thinkers such as Kundakunda. Their work promotes absolute renunciation and exposes the difference between the conventional point of view and the religious or absolute point of view. The conventional viewpoint – vyavahāra-naya – sees things from the angle of everyday life while the religious viewpoint – niścaya-naya – focuses on the religious perspective.

Beside that, the Terāpanthin teachers also have to their credit a good number of creative writings where they set out their viewpoints on certain crucial topics. Most of these writings are in Rajasthani and Hindi, their native languages.

For example, Ācārya Bhikṣu’s 1787 Poem on Compassion – Anukampā rī caupaī – gives the Terāpantha’s specific position on this topic. In his view, because good acts create karma, they also obstruct the liberation of the soul, just as bad acts do. Therefore all acts should be avoided, even acts of compassion. Activities are positive from the social point of view of everyday life, but they create disadvantages from the religious or absolute point of view. For him, pure renunciation of all activity is the highest aim.

Finally, under the influence of Ācārya Tulsī and Ācārya Mahāprajña, increasing numbers of books and pamphlets promoting Terāpanthin ideas in English are being published. This supports the work of the Terāpanthin samaṇas and samaṇis, who undertake missionary tours outside India among the Jain diaspora.

Ācārya Mahāprajña meditating
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Terāpanthins stress fasting, ascetic practices and meditation.

Since 1975, they have placed most emphasis on what they call prekṣā dhyāna – ‘insight meditation’. This was introduced by Ācārya Mahāprajña in 1975, after twenty years of experimentation, following the success of the Buddhist meditation known as vipassanā. Insight meditation has become the hallmark of the Terāpanthins. Whether in India or abroad, they conduct classes and produce books to encourage more people to practise it.

Insight meditation aims to purify the practitioner’s mental state, which, according to Mahaprajna 2003:

• involves ‘careful concentration on subtle consciousness by mental insight’, starting with perception of the body
• produces ‘spiritual vigilance, or awakening of the consciousness and constant alertness’
• results in ‘total relaxation of the body with self-awareness’, which, together with awareness of one’s breathing, enables the meditator to channel and concentrate mental functioning
• produces perception of body, psychic centres and psychic colours, of the present moment and of thoughts, which leads to self-discipline, which brings willpower.

Śvetāmbara Sthānaka-vāsin or Terā-panthin nuns
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All monks and nuns in the Terāpanthin order attend the annual Festival of Restraint. Lay Terāpanthin communities send representatives to the festival, which lasts three or four days in January or February. Recently, it has become a large occasion, with some 50,000 pilgrims attending.

Instituted by Ācārya Jītmal – Jayācārya – in 1864 to mark Ācārya Bhikṣu’s completion of the rules governing monastic behaviour, the festival is when Terāpanthin mendicants recite an oath of loyalty to the ācārya. He chooses the members of groups of ascetics for the following year and decides where they will travel and spend the rainy season.

Ācārya Tulsi
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In post-Independence India, Ācārya Tulsi insisted not only on the religious values of detachment and asceticism, but also that social values such as education and morality should be encouraged among the Jain laity.

In 1949 Ācārya Tulsi created the Aṇuvrat movement to develop non-violence and morality among lay followers. The movement is based on the aṇuvrat, meaning ‘minor vows’. The term ‘minor vows’ describes the vows of lay Jains while Jain ascetics take the mahā-vrata or ‘great vows’. Membership of the Aṇuvrat movement is open to all people, including non-Jains, and provides rules of ethics that guide everyday life. The rules emphasise self-restraint, tolerance, peace, friendship and unity. This shows Ācārya Tulsi’s drive to create a new Jain way of life and to extend traditional Jain values into wider society.

Female education is another area where Ācārya Tulsi’s contribution has been highly significant. The nuns, especially the samaṇis, are encouraged to study the scriptures and follow university courses. Several have gained PhDs in India and have written scholarly books.

In 1960 an initiative called nayā moḍ – ‘new turn’ – sought to stamp out ‘outdated’ social customs among the Terāpanth laity, such as dowries, ritual wailing and female purdah. Nowadays female education is encouraged and marriage across caste barriers permitted while dowries have been abolished.