Ahimsa and the "Science" of Living: The Jain Path to Environmental Well- Being

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 4:10:00 PM - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 6:00:00 PM
Rm. 1190, Bahen Centre, 40 St. George Street
Environment Seminar



SMITA KOTHARI, Ph.D candidate, Department of Religion and Centre for Environment, University of Toronto

ABSTRACT: Drawing on ethnographic analysis of the Rajasthan, India based contemporary Jain sect known as the Terapantha, and textual analysis of the sect’s writings on environment and the Science of Living, I will argue, in my presentation today, that although environmental concerns are a new episteme for the Jains, nevertheless the Terapanthis potentially offer a path to current environmental and social concerns. The contemporary period of corporate globalization and global movements of resistance is generating a global discourse of “environmentalism” that functions to universalize 19th century romantic movements concerning “nature”. The global nature of this movement has inevitably resulted in a colony to metropolis exportation of religious concepts from the developing world whose success is contingent upon, to a greater or lesser degrees, their congruence with 19th century romantic thought. One such project, the cultural translation of Jaina Yoga within the Terapantha community, may serve as an effective case study of this emerging global phenomenon. Within the Terapantha Svetambara (white-clad) Jaina community, ecological awareness is created by practices of meditation (Preksadhyana), everyday morality (anuvrat – small vows of moral discipline), and principles of well-being (Jeevan Vigyan or Science of Living). These concomitant practices, which the Terapanthis claim “transmutes human personality,” may, I contend, have an impact in tackling broader social issues such as violence, social injustice, and environmental degradation.

BRIEF BIO: Smita Kothari received her B.A. in English and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto in 2004 and her collaborative M.A. in Religion and South Asian Studies focusing on a comparative study of violence in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Sauptikaparvan (the sixth and tenth book of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata) from the University of Toronto. She is currently a Ph.D candidate in a collaborative program with the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion, the Centre for Environment, and the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her areas of study include the study of yoga in the Hindu and Jain traditions and the environment. Her dissertation “Dana and Dhyana in Jaina Yoga: A Case Study of Prekshadhyana and the Terapantha” is a textual and ethnographic study that explores notions of charity and meditation practices through a case study of a particular sect of Jainism. The dissertation examines, through the prism of charity and meditation, if and how such practices can be successful in responding to environmental and social justice concerns.