Seventeen-year-old Varshil Shah, who was one of the toppers in Gujarat Board’s Class XII general stream exams with 99.99 percentile marks, choose spiritual path by leaving aside all materialistic pleasure and became Jain monk on Thursday on the banks of river Tapi in Surat.
With the teenager embracing the tough life of a Jain muni or monk, he will be known as Suvirya Ratna Vijayji Maharaj. In the presence of several Jain monks, his family members and thousands of Jain community members, Varshil took ‘Diksha’ or monkhood after a religious ceremony that was conducted at Adajan area of Surat.
On Wednesday, a grand celebration was held in which Varshil dressed up like a prince. However, now onwards he would be seen in white traditional attire of Jain monk with tonsured head.
His father Jigar Shah is working with Income Tax department in Ahmedabad. His mother Ami is home-maker.
Interestingly, Varshil decided to take Diksha after the result of Class 12 exam results. Being one of the toppers in Gujarat, Varshil could have got admission in any course to be pursued after 12th commerce, but he denounced everything and chose to become a monk.
Nayan Sutaria, uncle of Varshil said that the event was conducted at around 4.30 pm in the presence of large
number of community members from across India. Interestingly, Sutaria’s son Dhrumil too took Diksha a few years ago.
According to him, like his son, Varshil too was attracted towards living the life of Jain monk. His family’s religious practice influenced Varshil a lot as he grew up in a house where television and refrigerator are not being used. As the Shah family believes that using electricity would kill insects, they are using bare minimum electricity.
As the Jain religion strictly believes in Jiv Daya, staunch followers of Jainism make sure that even insect wouldn’t be killed even by mistake.
According to Varshil, even after getting high marks in the Gujarat board exams he didn’t get the kind of happiness he wanted.
“Eternal happiness would only be possible in harmony and harmless to everyone,” said the teenage monk Suvirya Ratna Vijayji Maharaj after taking the ‘Dikaha’.
Ascetic life in Jainism is
not easy as monks have to
walk to one place to other as they don’t use vehicle. Besides, fasting during Paryusan days too is very tough as during
daytime monks would not
even drink water and forget food.