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JAIN ASCETIC BREAKS 201-DAY FAST FOR WORLD PEACE
#5 JAIN ASCETIC BREAKS 201-DAY FAST FOR WORLD PEACE
(From INN)
Agence France Presse
Bombay, Jan 9
An Indian ascetic broke his 201-day fast for world peace at a ceremony Monday
at his small Indian religious community attended by fellow monks and nuns.
Sahajmuni Maharaj, 62, ate his first solid food in nearly seven months just
after sunrise Monday at the House of Non-Violence here, his assistants said.
Bombay's normally bustling wholesale textile markets were closed to honour
the breaking of the fast by the Jain ascetic, whose feat has captured the
imagination of this Indian commercial capital.
Sahajmuni has been living only on two glases of warm water a day since
embarking on his marathon fast.
His followers said Sahajmuni had set record by going without solid food for
201 days, beating the 182 days set by Mahavir, a founder of Jainism, a
2,400-year-old offshot of Hinduism.
Tens of thousands of people have congregated daily outside the House of
Non-Violence in the wealthy Bombay suburb of Khar to receive his blessing or
catch a glimpse of the monk.
Jains, who number more than three million and count among them some of
India's most successful businessmen, are strict vegetarians, eating nothing
grown beneath the soil, and are not allowed to kill any living thing.
Like other Jain ascetics, Sahajmuni wears only an unstitched white cotton
robe. A mask covers his nose and mouth so that he does not inhale insects or
microscopic creatures.
Jain ascetics never travel by mechanised transport, fearing the machines
could crush insects. They travel on foot, sweeping the path before them with a
broom or employing someone to do so.
Sahajmuni, who reportedly left home at the age of 12 and joined a nomadic
group of Jain ascetics, is a veteran faster. A pamphlet handed out by his aides
says he first went without food, for three weeks, in 1964.
He fasted every year after that, gradually increasing the number of
consecutive days to 131 in 1993.
