It dawned on me today that as a result of being driven everywhere I didn’t have a mental map about where we are and where we’ve been. I know we’re in India and so far we’ve travelled from Delhi to Jaipur to Jodhpur and now to Udaipur.
Anyway, with the help of good old Google, here’s what it looks like so far.
I must be becoming acclimatised to India. Everything we saw along the way is all starting to feel pretty normal now.
Ranakpur Jain Temple
The highlight of the journey down was a visit to the Jain temple at Ranakpur. It’s one of the largest and most important temples in Jain culture and it turns out I’m a bit of a fan of their philosophy .
The essence of Jainism is concern for the welfare of every being in the universe and for the health of the universe itself.
They believe that animals and plants as well as people contain living souls and that each of these souls has equal value and should be treated with respect and compassion.
They then believe in reincarnation and seek to escape the continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth by transcending karma so that the immortal soul lives forever in a state of bliss.
So there are no gods or spiritual beings that will help human beings. Just three guiding principles of:
- right belief,
- right knowledge,
- and right conduct
These translate into the following key behaviours.
- intentional non-violence / non-injury in actions actions, thoughts and speech.
- not lying and not approving anyone who speaks an untruth.
- not take anything that is not willingly given.
- celibacy if you’re a monk or faithfulness if you are a layperson.
- non-possessiveness and avoiding craving and greed.
Given how delicious the mutton and other meat dishes are out here it’s likely to be a bit of a challenge in practice, but food for thought.
Dave and Annette in India and Nepal 