Kanji Swami
Kanji Swami | |
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Personal | |
Born | Umrala, Digambar | 21 April 1890
Notable work(s) | Jain scholar, philosopher and spiritual leader |
Part of a series on |
Jainism |
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Kanji Swami (1890–1980) was a teacher of Jainism.[1][2] He was deeply influenced by the Samayasāra of Kundakunda in 1932. He lectured on these teachings for 45 years to comprehensively elaborate on the philosophy described by Kundakunda and others. He was given the title of "Koh-i-Noor of Kathiawar" by the people who were influenced by his religious teachings and philosophy.[3]
Biography
Early years
Kanji Swami was born in Umrala, a small village in the Kathiawar region of Gujarat, in 1890 to a Sthanakvasi family.[4] Although an able pupil in school, he always had an intuition that the worldly teachings was not something that he was looking out for. His mother died when he was thirteen and he lost his father at the age of seventeen. After this, he started looking after his father's shop. He used 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 renunciation.[1][5]
Renunciation and later life
Kanji Swami became a
During 1921, he read Kundakunda's Samayasāra, which influenced him greatly. He also studied writings of Pandit Todarmal and Shrimad Rajchandra. Other influences were Amritchandra and Banarasidas. During his discourses, he began to incorporate the ideas picked from these studies and began to lead a kind of double life, nominally a Sthānakavāsī monastic but referring to Digambara texts.[1][5][6]
His assertions that "vows, giving and fasting were ultimately worthless if performed without any understanding of the soul" did not endear him to the Sthānakavāsī community. He left Sthānakavāsī monastic life and proclaimed himself a celibate Digambara
Philosophy
Kanji Panth is a school of
The Digambara Jain scholar Kundakunda, in his Pravacanasara states that a Jain mendicant should meditate on "I, the pure self". Anyone who considers his body or possessions as "I am this, this is mine" is on the wrong road, while one who meditates, thinking the antithesis and "I am not others, they are not mine, I am one knowledge" is on the right road to meditating on the "soul, the pure self".
There is no centralized management of temples. All Temples are managed independently by a local board of trustees. Apart from numerous temples in India,[16] temples exist in Brampton, Canada;[17] Harrow, London, ;[18] and Mombasa, Kenya.[19]
In an interview in 1977, he denied being hostile to the traditional Jain monasticism and regarded monastics 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 of Digambara monks, and of other possessions, could not make an individual a true monastic unless he had abandoned internal possessions as well.[20]
Legacy
The Digambara Jaina Svādhyāya Mandira was built in 1937. It houses the text Samayasāra in the main temple and the words of Kundakunda's five main treatises have been engraved on its walls. A temple dedicated to Jain
See also
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 9781576073551.
- ISBN 8185952647.
- ^ "Teerthdham Mangalayatan, Aligarh, India â€" Jain Teerthdham". Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ^ a b Dundas 2002, p. 255.
- ^ a b c d e Dundas. "Kanji swami Panth". University of Cumbria. Division of Religion and philosophy. pp. 231–2. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ a b c d Dundas 2002, p. 256.
- ^ "Jainism". Philtar.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ "Kanji Svami Panth". Philtar.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ "Kanji Svami Panth" (PDF). p. 24.
- ^ "Kanji Swami Panth".
- ^ Johnson 1995, pp. 137–143.
- ^ Bronkhorst 1993, pp. 74, 102, Part I: 1–3, 10–11, 24, Part II: 20–28.
- ^ Mahony 1997, pp. 171–177, 222.
- ^ "Reference to Predetermination" (PDF). p. 27.
- ^ "extinction of terapanthi digambar in 1950-60" (PDF). p. 13.
- ^ "Jain Literature and Jain Logic: World-Wide Contacts". Atmadharma.com. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ "Bhagwan 1008 Adinatha Swamy Jain Temple". Jaintemplecanada.com. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ "Shree Digamber Jain Association". Sdja.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ "Kanji Svami Digambar Jain Temple in Mombasa". 21 May 2015.
- ^ Dundas 2002, pp. 228–29.
Sources
- Bronkhorst, Johannes (1993), The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1114-0
- Dundas, Paul (2002), The Jains, Library of religious beliefs and practices, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-26605-5
- Johnson, W.J. (1995), Harmless Souls: Karmic Bondage and Religious Change in Early Jainism with Special Reference to Umāsvāti and Kundakunda, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1309-0
- Mahony, William (1997), The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-3580-9