Stories make the world go round

The author, Sudhamahi Regunathan, asserts that story-telling sessions can make the world learn compassion and how to peacefully co-exist

Humra Quraishi

Sudhamahi Regunathan has been writing extensively on Jainism. And these are no ordinary writings. These focus on the varying aspects of Jainism. She writes in the story-telling dastangoi style, making the read further interesting and taking the reader along with the flow of her words and thoughts.

A former vice-chancellor of the Jain Vishva Bharti University and author-translator of several books, which include Rishabhayan: The Story Of The First King, an English translation of Acharya Mahapragya’s original work in Hindi .

Her latest book, The Colours of Desire on the Canvas of Restraint: The Jaina Way was launched recently. Here she talks about the book and why it is important to tell stories. Excerpts from the interview.

Q 1 Tell us about some of the 'discoveries' you have made whilst delving deep into Jainism .

Ans 1 – I made several personal discoveries. Perhaps, Jainism was the first to open the doors of spirituality to women. The first-ever nuns in the whole world may have come from Jainism, even before the pre-Christian era.

Jainism is considered to be a very severe religion, but that is for the ascetics. To a lay person, it advocates restraint and restraint is the key to write poetry or create art in any form.

The earliest available sculpture panels of dance are from Udayagiri caves inhabited by Jain monks. The earliest bronzes discovered are those of the Jain Tirthankaras. The philosophical concept of anekanta stands for peaceful co-existence and that was too first thought by Jain monks.

Q 2- In your this latest book The Colours of Desire on the Canvas of Restraint- The Jaina Way ,' you have mentioned that early Jainas were great communicators. Comment.

Ans 2 - I also found the Jainas had great stories and contributed to the “Indian-ness” of the continent by carrying stories from one part of the country to another. This is because monks used to travel with businessmen wherever they went and collected stories of that region and carried those elsewhere. They were great communicators. They not only took folklore, classic stories to people, but also taught the proverbial moral at the end, but they also spoke in the local language so as to make the communication more meaningful. In this way, Prakrit travelled across the country and is either the root for some modern Indian languages or has lent many words to it. The influence of these stories can be traced to our lifestyle habits and beliefs. One commonly used motif is the story of the six blind men and an elephant.

q3 - In this so-called modern era, you focus on myths and stories in your book. How relevant are these?

Ans 3 - Have we stopped listening to stories just because we have advanced technologically? Everyone loves a good story. Mythological stories, however incredulous, give a sense of comfort, a sense of continuity with the past.

In fact, my next book is on Jaina stories. Look at the craft of constructing a story. The Jainas have mastered it. It has all the elements: Suspense, titillation and a moral. Jaina stories have the distinction of weaving stories around the common man and not just gods and goddesses or the royalty. I also believe that some ideas may be truer than we imagine. Wright Brothers made flying a reality or else it belonged to the realm of myths and sounded absurd to human life. So sometimes myths may just open possibilities to the mind, whether they can be translated into reality is another matter.

How would you explain the rise of violence, where the so called religiousness holds sway ?

Ans 4 – We get violent, because we do not know our religion. All religions preach non-violence and peace. This sounds like a blanket statement and so does not touch anyone. But if you look closely and understand the reasons and literature of each religion, you are able to internalise the idea and then you may ask the question about why societies indulge in violence.

Many of us do not even know the basic teachings of the faith. In Jainism, for example, it is said that every being wants to live…is that not so touching? You can’t kill if you internalise this sutra?

Can story-telling sessions from different faiths help bridge gaps and remove misconceptions?

Yes. Stories reach where nothing else can. A story is told that a businessman wanted his son to learn and he sent him to several acharyas. The boy did not learn, in fact, he ran away from them. Finally, one teacher managed to teach him and that he did so by telling him stories. Soon, through a path that looked exciting, the teacher led him to the underlying lesson in each story.

We should have story-telling sessions and that there is nothing wrong in highlighting the morals. For, when you live in a society, there has to be some lessons on basic etiquettes, concern for others and the ways of the world. That is called culture.