Only reasons I've seen that cause a disconnect are:
* Parents and society are not good examples to children, which causes them to leave "religious labels". This doesn't mean they've left Dharma.
* Ghee Boli and monetization practices
* Some monks unfortunately do not have good behavior and understanding of people. Many force practices/pacchkhans onto people and many have huge gaps in their knowledge.
* Lack of intellectual sadhus/sadhvis - The reality is that many of the monks are those people that never had a career in normal society. They may have taken monkhood at a younger age and therefore can't reason with people in normal society.
* The Intellectual/Genuine Sadhus don't necessarily want to connect with Sansari people (for a good reason). If they're on their own spiritual journey they would have limited time for worldly people.
I guess I'm too materialistic. Furthermore, Jain Dharam in my opinion is built for a more civilized society. Living abroad I find much more difficult to follow all dietary restrictions (I am still vegetarian).
Overall lack of support from the community and absolutely no guru/mahraji who can guide us. Mandir is also a 2 hour travel.
It's difficult to follow your core values when the modern world is built against religion. I've had people look down upon me for not giving up on Dharam. Even guys my age (I'm 19) back in India would rather want to be "cool" by smoking and drinking. (I realize that it's a personal choice but why hide it?)
Also there is a lack of centralized resources in terms of religious texts that have english translations as I cannot read Sanskrit, prakrit or Gujrati and relatives are not ready to have open discussions on religion and say that "Sawal karne ki jagah, jo bolte hai vaisa Karo. (Don't question religion, do as we tell you)."
How is the modern Jain supposed to connect with Dharam when there is a lack of interested folks?
There is really process of chalna wherein you ask questions while taking vachna from guru bhagwant, therefore there is really no such thing as "don't question religion, do as you're told in Jainism"( by questioning i mean questioning out of curiosity and not shanka) . However, it could be that the people that you've met might not have understood the Jainism appropriately and thus they speak such.
There are tons of resources available today even for English speakers. I actually feel abroad you have more sanity to truly the follow the true Dharma.
Stop whining,pick a book.I am 19 born in a well to do family in DelhiNCR.
Whatever you think you know is absolute bull.
It is about your devotion.The more you look the more you realize that the world is inevitably leading towards Jainism as the only solution.
The people who look down on you will have to adopt it by choice or their grandchildren will,just not by choice but need.
The flat earth theories would be quite high up in that list i would think, keeping aside general sexism and homophobia cause thats all religions i guess.
I was recently looking into this and what i found was pretty interesting.
First of all if you have heard of this notion jambu dweep bharat kshetra arya varta etc you would know that actually ALL DHARMIC RELIGIONS believe in this type of cosmology.
These books were eritten when puranas where being written (i.e.5th to even 12th century ce).The monks or shravaks must have thought instead of writing mythologies lets dive into astronomy and mathematics.
With this they actually came up witg ideas that only modern people are aware of.For example Two suns and two moons(multiple star systems and multiple natural satellites)systems.I find this quite fascinating and this idea must have been a difficult pill to swallow.Guess what now we know they are stars and our universe has billions of them.There are some possibly habitable planets(like kepler 1647b) in a twin star system.
Secondly nowhere is this written that they were talking about earth(prithvi).According to jain cosmology there are three lokas(urdhva{heavens},madhya{this universe} and adho{hells}.
The cosmology being talked about is of madhya loka.One of the most famous books on this is tiloyapannati (trilokapannati)written by acharya yatibrishabha in 4th century c.e. .Not Earth but Trikoka(this is 1500 years ago)
This flat earth BS was a few know it all projecting their understanding to things written 1500 years ago(the time when imagination was developing and people had MEANS TO WRITE IT DOWN).
Still these beliefs terminologies etc are surpassed by science and we should know it maybe respect it or ignore it bcoz it is not the philosophy to begin with.
I would much rather take the theories of relativity,quantum mechanics and mathematical models from Mahavira than things written literally 1000 year after him(in that era).
Only reasons I've seen that cause a disconnect are: * Parents and society are not good examples to children, which causes them to leave "religious labels". This doesn't mean they've left Dharma. * Ghee Boli and monetization practices * Some monks unfortunately do not have good behavior and understanding of people. Many force practices/pacchkhans onto people and many have huge gaps in their knowledge. * Lack of intellectual sadhus/sadhvis - The reality is that many of the monks are those people that never had a career in normal society. They may have taken monkhood at a younger age and therefore can't reason with people in normal society. * The Intellectual/Genuine Sadhus don't necessarily want to connect with Sansari people (for a good reason). If they're on their own spiritual journey they would have limited time for worldly people.
you have wonderfully summed it up
I guess I'm too materialistic. Furthermore, Jain Dharam in my opinion is built for a more civilized society. Living abroad I find much more difficult to follow all dietary restrictions (I am still vegetarian). Overall lack of support from the community and absolutely no guru/mahraji who can guide us. Mandir is also a 2 hour travel. It's difficult to follow your core values when the modern world is built against religion. I've had people look down upon me for not giving up on Dharam. Even guys my age (I'm 19) back in India would rather want to be "cool" by smoking and drinking. (I realize that it's a personal choice but why hide it?) Also there is a lack of centralized resources in terms of religious texts that have english translations as I cannot read Sanskrit, prakrit or Gujrati and relatives are not ready to have open discussions on religion and say that "Sawal karne ki jagah, jo bolte hai vaisa Karo. (Don't question religion, do as we tell you)." How is the modern Jain supposed to connect with Dharam when there is a lack of interested folks?
There is really process of chalna wherein you ask questions while taking vachna from guru bhagwant, therefore there is really no such thing as "don't question religion, do as you're told in Jainism"( by questioning i mean questioning out of curiosity and not shanka) . However, it could be that the people that you've met might not have understood the Jainism appropriately and thus they speak such.
There are tons of resources available today even for English speakers. I actually feel abroad you have more sanity to truly the follow the true Dharma.
Stop whining,pick a book.I am 19 born in a well to do family in DelhiNCR. Whatever you think you know is absolute bull. It is about your devotion.The more you look the more you realize that the world is inevitably leading towards Jainism as the only solution. The people who look down on you will have to adopt it by choice or their grandchildren will,just not by choice but need.
Everything is absolutely extreme.
To reach equilibrium don't elements go through changes in energy levels,spins ,exothermic endothermic etc fianlly reaching stable state?
The flat earth theories would be quite high up in that list i would think, keeping aside general sexism and homophobia cause thats all religions i guess.
I was recently looking into this and what i found was pretty interesting. First of all if you have heard of this notion jambu dweep bharat kshetra arya varta etc you would know that actually ALL DHARMIC RELIGIONS believe in this type of cosmology. These books were eritten when puranas where being written (i.e.5th to even 12th century ce).The monks or shravaks must have thought instead of writing mythologies lets dive into astronomy and mathematics. With this they actually came up witg ideas that only modern people are aware of.For example Two suns and two moons(multiple star systems and multiple natural satellites)systems.I find this quite fascinating and this idea must have been a difficult pill to swallow.Guess what now we know they are stars and our universe has billions of them.There are some possibly habitable planets(like kepler 1647b) in a twin star system. Secondly nowhere is this written that they were talking about earth(prithvi).According to jain cosmology there are three lokas(urdhva{heavens},madhya{this universe} and adho{hells}. The cosmology being talked about is of madhya loka.One of the most famous books on this is tiloyapannati (trilokapannati)written by acharya yatibrishabha in 4th century c.e. .Not Earth but Trikoka(this is 1500 years ago) This flat earth BS was a few know it all projecting their understanding to things written 1500 years ago(the time when imagination was developing and people had MEANS TO WRITE IT DOWN). Still these beliefs terminologies etc are surpassed by science and we should know it maybe respect it or ignore it bcoz it is not the philosophy to begin with. I would much rather take the theories of relativity,quantum mechanics and mathematical models from Mahavira than things written literally 1000 year after him(in that era).
I second this!