Surat: A Surat-based diamond trader, along with his family, is set to embrace monkhood in Jainism at a ceremony in the Sabarmati area in Ahmedabad.

Trustees of the Jain Shwetambar Murtipujak Sangh, a Jain religious body, said Sanjay Shah, 53, his wife Nitaben, 49, daughter Pooja, 26, and son Darshil, 25, would take ‘diksha’ (consecration) to begin Jain monastic life at the ceremony on April 25.

Shah was into diamond trading in Surat, a diamond cutting and polishing center in the western Indian state of Gujarat and some 290 km south of the state capital of Gandhinagar.

While Shah’s son is pursuing chartered accountancy, his daughter Pooja is a B.Com gold medallist, said Nilay Savla, who is associated with the Jain body.

Elsewhere in Surat, a non-resident Indian woman, who worked at a multinational company would also take ‘diksha’ at a ceremony, one of her relatives said.

“Heta Shah (30) will become a Jain nun at a function on Wednesday in Surat. She realised that this is the true path to a happy life after interacting with Jain monks in 2010,” Rupesh Shah said.

The 30-year-old returned to Surat in 2014 and studied the Jain religion extensively. She then decided to take ‘diksha’.

Earlier this week, a 24-year-old Chartered Accountant, belonging to a Mumbai-based Jain family, had embraced monkhood at a ceremony in Gandhinagar on April 20 after renouncing his family business which was reportedly more than 1 billion rupees.

A day earlier, 12-year-old Bhavya Shah, son of a Surat-based diamond merchant, had become a Jain monk.

Jain monks renounce all material possessions and rely for food and shelter on the Jain community. It’s more common to see such monks and nuns in India where the Jain religion was founded.

The religion is believed to be one of the most ancient religions in the world and is often associated with Hinduism or seen as a branch of Hinduism. However, Jainism is very much a religion in its own right and its followers have to keep a strict code of conduct especially when it comes to diet.

Jains are strict vegetarians but also do not eat root vegetables and some types of fruits. Some Jains are also vegans and exclude various types of green vegetables during periods of the month.

It is this principle of nonviolence to living things, or ahimsa as the Jains call it, which dictates the Jain monks’ life of abstinence.

(With inputs from hindustantimes.com)