Surat: A student, who scores 99 percentile in class XII commerce examination, normally would wish to become a chartered accountant. However, this 17-year-old teenager from Ahmedabad has found his calling in sainthood.
Varshil Shah has expressed his thoughts in a letter explaining why he has decided to take diksha and become a Jainmonk. “I always wanted to live a good life in peace and happiness but that happiness should have come without me harassing anyone. No one should get hurt by me and I should get endless happiness. I witnessed in Uttarayan how people enjoyed when they got to cut the kites of others. I saw in Diwali people derived happiness at the cost of sleep of birds and animals,” Shah has said.
“Business for some means filling their coffers even if they had to fleece others. To get material luxuries, they are destroying others and giving pain to their wife, parents, brothers, sisters and other family members,” he explains.
“I noticed money has become paramount for many in the society. Such people believe that ‘win they must all time and defeat others.’ They prosper and ‘live by killing others.’ This trend in society has been worrying me. How is this happiness when you cause pain to others? Can’t we get real happiness without paining others?” he asks.
“I was in search of answers to these questions when I got to know about Jain diksha. The most important thing about diksha is don’t hurt any living creature. I heard Shree Kalyanratna Vijayji Maharaj and became aware about internal divinity,” he says.
Shah will be starting a new life as a Jain monk on June 8 after taking diksha in Surat in the presence of monks and Shree Kalyanratna Vijayji Maharaj.