Jainism Summer School Gets Foreign Attraction

Varanasi, India (CHAKRA) —The old city of Varanasi is witnessing an attraction from foreign countries, specifically to two religions—Jainism and Buddhism.  It seems the influence of the two religions is stretching outside of the borders of Varanasi.

While Sarnath, the place where Buddha preached his first sermon, previously emerged into an international centre for Buddhist studies, now Parshwanath Vidyapeeth (PV) is associating with the International School of Jain Studies (ISJS).  PV is an external research centre of Jain studies that is recognized by Banaras Hindu University (BHU).  It is getting ready to promote research on various aspects of Jainism in addition to already teaching students and teachers to real-life experiences and by promoting peaceful coexistence with other religions.

Shagun C. Jain, Vice President of PV as well as Chairman of ISJS-PV Global Centre expressed his pride in establishing the ISJS-PV global centre for ahimsa (non-violence)as well as for starting Indic research in which foreign scholars get the opportunity to get first-hand experience of the traditions and rituals of the variety of religions the city offers.  He also added that since 2005 the number of students attending the international summer school have risen from seven to approximately 60 this year.

The ISJS-PV global centre for ahimsa and Indic research was created in 2009 while ISJS had been holding annual summer classes in the months of June and July at the PV centre for the last five years.

A professor and director of PV said that the whole idea was to attract foreign students and teachers so that they can learn about the rich culture and religions such as Jainism that coexist peacefully within one of the oldest cities of the world.  The same professor, Professor Jain, also added that the centre is starting to link the philosophy of Jainism to modern thinking and lifestyle so that the religious teachings become more relevant to the time and can be easily related to by the students.  Some current issues that are being addressed through religion are terrorism and environmental pollution.

So far the centre has attracted about 60 foreign students from 11 different countries around the world.  About 50 percent of those students come from North America (Canada and the US) but lately students from other Asian and European countries such as Thailand, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Norway, and Denmark have also shown interest towards the programs offered by the ISJS-PV school.