The jain worldview holds that a creator

First Encounter

On a street in Southeast Asia you ask a gentleman for directions. This leads to further

conversation because your accent gives you away and he has relatives in the United States.

“Maybe you know them?” he asks. “Do you live close to Tennessee?”

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Even though you don’t know his relatives, you are soon learning all about his family. He has two

sons, already married, and a willful daughter who is of marriageable age. He is frightened that

she might fall in love with a person of a different religion, and then what will he do? Soon he is

taking you into his nearby gurdwara—the religious center for Sikhs—where he will be doing

volunteer work this afternoon and having something to eat.

At the entrance, your new friend takes a piece of orange cloth and makes a turban to cover the

top of your head. He does the same for himself. “We do this for respect,” he says. Upstairs, you

meet the resident priest, a bright-eyed man in blue, who wears an orange cap. “Our congregation

brought him from India to be our priest,”

your Sikh friend explains as you walk to the altar area. Soon the priest is showing you copies of

the Adi Granth, the sacred book of the Sikhs. They are housed in a special air-conditioned

sanctuary beside the altar. Then you see the sword collection at the side of the room and discuss

the kirpan (ritual knife) that the priest wears. “Sikhs had to learn to defend themselves,” your

friend explains. “These are symbols of our strength.”

Afterward, you are invited downstairs to an enormous kitchen and dining room. Large vats

gleam. You and your friend sit at a long table, drinking tea with milk and eating a late-afternoon

snack with the kitchen workers.

At the entrance, before leaving, you give back your turban to the Sikh guide and thank him for

his kindness. You commiserate about his daughter and take the names and addresses of his

relatives in the United States, whom you plan to contact on your very next visit to their state. He

helps you find a taxi and, as it stops, invites you to a service three days from now. “There will be

wonderful Sikh music. You must come.” As you are climbing into the taxi, he adds, “There will

be much good food, too.”

Turbans, you decide as your taxi snakes through the traffic, are fine. But swords? And priests

who wear knives? Are these suitable symbols for any religion? How can religions hold such

differing attitudes about violence?

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Shared Origins

India is home to two religions, Jainism and Sikhism, that are now becoming better known in the

West (Figure 5.1). The first is ancient, and the other is relatively young. Adherents of the two

religions can be found in limited numbers around the world, but the majority of them still live in

India.

Figure 5.1 Jain and Sikh holy sites in India.

Both religions have some connection with Hinduism, sharing with it certain characteristics, such

as a belief in karma and rebirth. Furthermore, both of them, having developed in opposition to

Hindu polytheism and ritualism, strive toward greater religious simplicity. In spite of their

similarities, however, Jainism and Sikhism differ in their views of reality and in their emotional

tone. It is therefore interesting to look at them side by side. Jainism rejects belief in a Creator and

sees the universe simply as natural forces in motion, yet it also recognizes the spiritual potential

of each person. Like early Buddhism, Jainism emphasizes the ideals of extreme nonattachment