Footprints of a Jain `acharya' : A Major Pilgrim Centre

By Swati Das

KUNDKUND NAGAR: Nestling on the hillock - Ponnur Malai - was found apair of ancient footprints (charan ) engraved on a rock found undera champa tree, believed to be that of the famous Jain monk Kund KundAcharya, who lived 2,000 years ago. This hillock, eight km fromVandavasi and 125 km south-west of Chennai, is today a major pilgrimcentre. The last one decade witnessed constant efforts to buildshelter around this spot for pilgrims and finally on February 20,the Acharya Kund Kund Jain Sanskruti Centre inaugurated the KundKund Kahan Students Hostel and the Shri Kund Kund Kahan Guest House.In no-man's land, where one has to travel at least eight km to evenfetch a match-box, the facility comes as a relief for the pilgrims.The inauguration was part of the 2600th birth anniversarycelebration of Lord Mahavira - January 1, 2000, to December 31,2001. Incidentally, Ponnur Malai was recently renamed Kund KundNagar in memory of the Jain Acharya, who wrote his 84 books on thishillock, preaching on Adhyatma - how to know oneself and to practicemeditation (dhyana).

The importance of this pilgrim centre dates back to the time whenmost of south was, according to one of the trustees Mr V CSreepalan, following the Jain way of life. ``Every 10 km, you wouldfind a Jain idol in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. But for fearof local religions, the temples in this region converted to Hinduones. Since then, they had been changing back and forth. Today, youwill find Hindu temples bearing Jain symbols and Jain templesbearing Hindu symbols on the walls and pillars,'' he pointed out.Acharya Kund Kund was considered special as he had the powers totravel to videh-kshetra (outer world), where the Tirthankar LordSimandraswami was preaching the principles of religion, for advise.The Acharya did his penance inside two small caves here and wrotehis 84 books on palm leaves. The above incident is mentioned in the ancient book - Darshan Saar by Devasenacharya - ``Jai paumandinahoseemandharsamidibbananen, na vidohai to samana kaha sumandpayanti.'' The local people too tell stories of this Acharya'sfrequent visit to the hillock.

The Acharya was born in a small village of Kondakonda - 14 km fromGuntakal town in Andhra Pradesh. Ancient legend has it that as acowherd in his previous birth, he had donated a religious book to aJain monk and so he was reborn in human form. He took initiation tothe ascetic order at the age of 12 and is known by various nameslike Yelacharya, Gradhapincha, Bakragrive and Padmanandi to name afew. He preached that every soul has the capacity and thecapability to become God. Self-realisation and reformation leads toeternal happiness. The books written by him were in Prakrit and onlyfive of his 84 books now survive - Samayasaar, Niyamasaar,Prabhachanasaar, Panchasthikay and Ashtaphaud.

The importance of this pilgrim centre dates back to the time whenmost of south was, according to one of the trustees Mr V CSreepalan, following the Jain way of life. ``Every 10 km, you wouldfind a Jain idol in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. But for fearof local religions, the temples in this region converted to Hinduones. Since then, they had been changing back and forth. Today, youwill find Hindu temples bearing Jain symbols and Jain templesbearing Hindu symbols on the walls and pillars,'' he pointed out.Acharya Kund Kund was considered special as he had the powers totravel to videh-kshetra (outer world), where the Tirthankar LordSimandraswami was preaching the principles of religion, for advise.The Acharya did his penance inside two small caves here and wrotehis 84 books on palm leaves. The above incident is mentioned in theancient book - Darshan Saar by Devasenacharya - ``Jai paumandinahoseemandharsamidibbananen, na vidohai to samana kaha sumandpayanti.'' The local people too tell stories of this Acharya'sfrequent visit to the hillock.

The Acharya was born in a small village of Kondakonda - 14 km fromGuntakal town in Andhra Pradesh. Ancient legend has it that as acowherd in his previous birth, he had donated a religious book to aJain monk and so he was reborn in human form. He took initiation tothe ascetic order at the age of 12 and is known by various nameslike Yelacharya, Gradhapincha, Bakragrive and Padmanandi to name afew. He preached that every soul has the capacity and thecapability to become God. Self-realisation and reformation leads toeternal happiness. The books written by him were in Prakrit and onlyfive of his 84 books now survive - Samayasaar, Niyamasaar,Prabhachanasaar, Panchasthikay and Ashtaphaud.

The theme and content of Kund Kund Swamy's writings have been fromtime to time explained by many authors. Acharya Amritchandra, AcharyaPadmaprabahamaldhari and Acharya Jaisena in Sanskrit and punditsJaichand Chabra and Banarasidas in Hindi have explained theprinciples of Adhyatma. In the last century (20th) Kanjiswamy fromSaurashtra gave wide publicity to the teachings of Kund Kund Swamy.A small temple was built over the footprints and an idol of LordMahavira was installed at the head of the footprint. The champa wasreplanted outside the temple. At the foot of the hillock is the newstudents' hostel and guest house. An industrial training instituteby the Acharya Kund Kund Educational Foundation and an engineeringcollege by others are also located in the vicinity.

``We want to start the students' hostel and will begin admission inApril for higher classes (standards VIII to XII). The education willbe in Tamil. We would like to expand further later. The teachings ofthe Acharya and Jainology would be part of syllabus. The guest housewill be for the use of the pilgrims and also for research scholarswho propagate Adhyatma,'' Mr Doshi said. The main contributiontowards the construction of the hostel and the guest house has comefrom another trustee, Ananthbhai Sheth. Incidentally, according toMr Sreepalan who is based in Kund Kund Nagar, the local Jains followthe preachings and teachings in Tamil and Jain books arealso available in Tamil.

There are about 200 Jain temples in the state and the Jain influencehas been found in caves, inscriptions, literatures and copperplates. Of the temples, Chittamoor, 40 km from Dina Kanchipuram, isthe Lord Parswanath (23rd) Tirthankar in sitting posture - known tobe 700 years old. A 10-day Brahmothsav in April is a famousfestival. The same place also has the 1000-year-old Lord Neminath(22nd) Tirthankar bass relief.

In Thirunarungkondai, 200 km south of Chennai, is a 1,800-year-oldbass relief of Parswanath in a cave with 40 steps also known asAppandainathar to the locals. In Tirumalai, 60 km from Vandavasi, isan 800-year-old 18-feet bass relief of Lord Neminath Tirthankar andin Arpakkam, 20 km from Kanchipuram, is the shrine of Lord AdinathTirthankar, more than 400 years old.

Life of a Reformist Saint Kanaji Swami

The Jain Samaj has been generally interpreted as an orthodox society, but it is not true. It has witnessedinternal movements, a process of reforms and a strong undercurrent of sensible liberalism which have givenit new directions time and again. Among these, the most successful twentieth century Jain movement hasbeen spearheaded by Gurudev Shri Kanji Swami. Gurudev was instrumental in starting a new revolution in thepercept and practice of Jainism, thereby putting thousands of souls on the true path of salvation.

Kanji Swami was born in Umrala, a small village in the Kathiawar region of Gujarat, in V.S. 1946 (1889 AD) to a Sthanakvaasi family. He showed a great ability for learning and was considered the most intelligentstudent of his class in the school. His mother died when he was 13 and he lost his father at the age of 17. After this, he started looking after his father's shop. He utilised the frequent periods of lull in the shop in reading various books on religion and spirituality. Turning down the proposals of marriage, he confided in his brother that he wanted to remain celibate and take up renunciation.

Eventually he took renunciation as a Sthanakvaasi monk in 1914 at the hands of Shri Hirachandji Maharaj.During the ceremony, while riding on an elephant, he inauspiciously tore his robe, which was later to provean ill omen in his monastic career. He embarked upon a rigorous study of the Shwetamber scriptures andfinished a detailed study of the 45 Agams (Jain Scriptures) including a deep analysis of several hundred verses. Being a believer in purushaarth (self effort) for achieving emancipation, he quickly became a learned and famous monk and, backed by his seventeen renditions of the Bhagvati Sutra with its 100,000 verses, came to be known as the 'Kohinoor of Kathiawar.'

But all this time he could never completely engage with the scriptures he was studying and continued hissearch for the still evasive Truth. Then, around 1921, he came upon Acharya KundKund's Samaysaar - 'Essence of the Doctrine' - the study of which was like "drinking the nectar of Truth" for him. He followed onby studying the writings of other Digambers such as Acharyakalp Pandit Todermalji and Shrimad Rajchandra.During his discourses he began to incorporate the ideas picked from these studies and began to lead akind of double life, nominally a Sthanakvasi monk but referring to the Digamber literature.

His assertions that "vows, giving and fasting were ultimately worthless if performed without any understanding of the soul" did not endear him to the Sthanakvasi community. This lead to a great turmoil in his life and in the lives of his followers. He began experiencing distress about his own self and about his behaviour as a Sthanakvasi monk. This came to a head at the small town of Songadh on Mahavir Jayanti day in 1934, when he formally removed his Muhapatti (a small white cloth to cover the mouth), left the Sthanakvasi monk-hood and proclaimed himself to be a Digamber shravak.

Even though he had some devotees, the Sthanakvasi community was understandably enraged by this betrayaland even his life was threatened. Kanji Swami fled to Songadh where eventually the local community becamereconciled to him and indeed virtually all of the nearly 300 families who today live at Songadh and follow him claim to be of Sthanakvasi background. Gurudev Kanji Swami started discourses, many of which are recorded on tapes, in the form of running commentaries on Acharya KundKund's writings. He never wrote any books and did not claim to say anything new but merely reiterating the words of Arihantas, acharyas and other scholars apart from Bhagwan Mahavir Swami, KundKund Acharya and Pt. Todarmalji.

Gurudevshri's DiscoursesIgnoring mundane topics such as dietary prescriptions, on the basis that all Jains would know about suchmatters, he directed his teachings to the subject of the soul and to Acharya KundKund's representation ofit as the one eternal and unconditional entity. Kanji Swami's insistence on the primacy of the absolutelevel of truth over the relative one of ordinary life is obvious from his frequent comment: "Please try tounderstand. No soul, with or without knowledge, has the slightest ability to move even a particle. In suchcircumstances, how can it do anything to the human body, or to any other thing for that matter?"

For him Samyak darshan (right faith) was a prerequisite to any meaningful progress upon the spiritual path. "The real path lies in self-experience of the soul after securing itself in Samyak darshan".He was convinced that the three jewels of Samyak darshan, Samyak gyan and Samyak charitra (right faith, right knowledge and right conduct) could only function effectively on the basis of a prior experience of the soul, and considered the various rituals and merit-making practices as subordinate. In an interview in 1977 he denied being hostile to the traditional Jain monk-hood and regarded them as personifying the fundamental principles of Jainism. However, he also pointed out that taking up formal initiation and behavioural practices, like the abandonment of clothes(common for Digamber monks) and other possessions, could not make an individual a true monk unless he hadabandoned internal possessions as well.

By now the following had grown quite large and the small house became inadequate so his devotees starteda building project at Songadh in 1937, which culminated in the 'Digamber Jain Swadhyay Mandir'. Inhonour of his favourite scripture, one of his devotees, who was later to become the leader of his following, Bahenshri Champaben, installed the Samaysaar in the main temple and the words of Acharya KundKund's five main treatises have been engraved on its walls. A temple dedicated to Shrimandhar Swami wasconsecrated in 1941.

Kanji Swami travelled on pilgrimage throughout India where he gave discourses and consecrated many temples. In 1980 he visited Kenya and installed many images of Tirthankars at temples in various towns. He had a profound impact on one particular family in Mombasa, the Bhagwanji Kachra family, who have continued their support to-date and even in London take a very active role at the Digamber Jain Mandir in Harrow. After a very dynamic and undoubtedly a revolutionary life, Kanji Swami left for his heavenly abode in a state ofSamadhi on 28th November 1980.