In seven years, Mumbai suburb sees 400 Santharas

MUMBAI: Wrapped in a white linen cloth, Ratanshi Samji Savla's forehead is smeared with sandalwood powder as he lies listlessly on the floor of his tiny apartment in Mumbai suburb, Dombivli. A steady stream of harried visitors slip out of their footwear, bow down to the elderly man and then scurry to find a spot with a back rest.

A fortnight ago, Savla's house wasn't like this. Posters directed people to his home; there were no designated visiting hours. His iconic status within the Jain community only came about in July this year when he decided to adopt the voluntary systematic fast to death called santhara, which lasted for nine days.

Soon after him, Kasturben Gala took the same spiritual decision to give up food and embrace Santhara. She made up her mind, and in the presence of her family and guru, vowed to abandon her body and purify her soul by purging old karmas, preventing the creation of new ones and "remaining indifferent to death".

After 17 days of fasting, Kasturben passed away . Her body was draped in white, put into a palanquin in the lotus position (to symbolize that she would attain moksha) and taken to the cremation ground in a procession. Hundreds of Jains in bright clothes thronged the procession to get a final glimpse, and no one was permitted to shed a tear, for it is believed that Kasturben has moved on to a higher place.

"There is a chain of Santhara that bonds a sect of the community residing in Dombivli and Nalasopara. When one Santhara among the Kutchi Visa Oswal sect ends, another person picks it up," says Babulal Jain, a veritable fount of information on Jainism. The Rajasthan high court's ruling to declare Santhara (also known as sallekhana) as suicide and illegal notwithstanding, the century-old practice is only spiralling.

Santhara is the Jain practice of dietary abstinence that eventually leads to death. Jain texts say it is the ultimate route to attaining moksha and breaking free from the whirlpool of life and death."In Dombivli and Nalasopara, there have been close to 400 Santharas in the last seven years," says Manish Gala, president of the Kutchi Visa Oswal Sangh, the section of the Jain community that is largely made of cloth and grain merchants. Dombivli has a dominant population of Kutchis -close to 20,000 who subscribe to their very own daily religious newspaper, Khabar Patika -that enlists, apart from the lectures of various monks, details of Santhara too.

In the first six months of this year, 118 Jains across the country relinquished food and water voluntarily and decided to exercise autonomy over one's body to free the soul. Of these, 11 Santharas were from Dombivli. Gala adds that in the last 20 years, 1,000 Kutchis have taken to Santhara. Contrary to popular belief that this is a morbid obsession, Jains believe that only the fortunate live to sign off their time in their world with a Santhara. "So many monks die a sudden death and cannot go on to do Santhara," adds Jain.More women than men go on to adopt it and the ratio stands at 60:40, adds Gala, whose father-in-law also embraced Santhara last year.

The vow as it is taken

When all the purposes of life have been served or when the body becomes unable to serve any purpose, I wish to be able to adopt santhara, a religious fast to death. I will abandon my body, which is very dear to my mind, the abode of my faith, like a box of ornaments containing precious stones. I will not care for the body in spite of feeling cold, hot, hungry, thirsty, or undergoing insect bites, troubles by other people, diseases, including those which may cause delirium, or other severe physical suffering."