The naked monks

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1:23There seems to be some commotion at the temple door. I think the monk is coming out and some of the devotees are running towards him to seek his blessings. Everyone wants to touch his feet and talk to him. And they are now following the monk in a little procession out of the village.

1:49It's about 2 p.m. and I have joined this group of 50 to 60 people walking through the narrow lanes of the village. In the middle of the procession is the monk in his 50s. He is walking barefoot and carrying a peacock feather duster in his hand. And he is completely naked. The party following the monk also includes some barefoot young women in their 20s and 30s. They are all covered from head to toe in white saris, but the monk doesn't at all seem to be self-conscious about his nudity.

2:26Rajesh Joshi:This is the documentary from the BBC World Service with me, Rajesh Joshi. And for this edition of Heart and Soul, where we explore personal approaches to spirituality from around the world. I am in Bada Gaon, a sleepy village, one hour drive north of India's capital, New Delhi. I am meeting Muni Pranam Yasagar, a Jain monk and his followers, to find out why someone would renounce everything, including the clothes, for their faith. I spoke to the barefoot monk as he walked. We must have walked two or two and a half kilometers from the Bada Ghaun temple. How much further will you be walking today and what will be the next stop and the one after that?

3:14The daily schedule varies from day to day. I have to walk for nine kilometers so we have to walk for another six and a half or seven kilometers. Then we'll decide about the next day's stop tomorrow morning.

3:29And your final destination is Roorkee, which is about 150 kilometers from here. And you will walk all the way? Yes, we'll go on foot. This is just 150 kilometers. During the summer season, I walked 700 kilometers from Kundalpur to Jaipur. This journey to Roorkee was supposed to have been undertaken during the summer season, but we had to reschedule it for some reasons. It's cold now, so there's no comfort neither in summer nor in winter. Why are you doing this?

4:07This act falls under a vow of non-possession. Carrying out all these external austerities like walking and facing unpleasant weather and so on brings a great deal of suffering and distress. The pain one endures from themselves to increase one's economy, or state of calm. This is the primary objective.

4:28Rajesh Joshi:I have seen wandering monks since my childhood. They walk from village to village and town to town because of a deep spiritual calling. Some of them are Hindu ascetics, some are Buddhist and also Jain. The monk I am walking with belongs to the Jain faith. Jains are a minority religion in India. They constitute only 0.4 % of the country's population. But Jainism is an ancient religion that predates Christianity and even Buddhism, and its demanding ancient practices continue to survive. Since everyone is walking barefoot, I'm also going to remove my shoes just to see how it feels to walk without shoes on the hard surface road.

5:28No, it's not easy. It's really painful to walk on this road.

5:37Rajesh Joshi:I couldn't even last a few seconds walking without shoes. Walking naked in the cold and in public would be rather unthinkable for me. Yet, walking naked in the procession, Munipranam Misagar appears relaxed. I see that you are walking barefoot, you are not wearing any clothes, but you are carrying a duster made of peacock feathers. What is its significance?

6:06Now see, a little insect is crawling on my neck. If I try to remove it with my hand, it might die. So I use the duster to swipe it away. There are so many things like that. If I have to sit down on the ground here right now, I'll brush away the small creatures and insects with this duster and then sit. This is our rule for protecting living creatures and exercising caution so that we are always aware of our commitment to nonviolence.

6:42Rajesh Joshi:Munipranam Yesagar has no family, no romantic partners and no material possessions. He owns nothing, not even clothes. By walking naked and carefully barefoot, he is a living embodiment of two key tenets of Jainism, Ahinsa and Aparigra, that is, non-violence and non-position. Jain religion is so ancient that scholars find it difficult to agree on the exact century it originated but most believe that it was established over 2500 years ago. In Jainism, the theory of karma is fundamental. It's not karma as we might be familiar with, that you reap what you sow. Jains believe that karma is a physical substance that is attached to your soul.

7:30Rajesh Joshi:Your actions and thoughts shape your karma and it's the karma that shapes the destiny of a soul. This soul is reborn into a different body at death but the ultimate goal for a jain is to purify the soul by removing all bondage of karma, to break this cycle of rebirth and reincarnation and reaching a state of ultimate liberation called moksha. One way karma can be shed is by pursuing a life of non-violence and non-position. These wandering naked monks are seen as pious role models who are well on the path to moksha. Rakshita Jain is one of Muniparnamasagar's followers. Why did you come here? We just wanted to know about Dharm, why he is on this path, Same like you.

8:21So when we got in connection with him, so we get to know so much, so many things about this world, the life, afterlife, and what are the karmas, how we are here, and about the Jainism, the concept of Jainism. As a young woman, don't you feel uncomfortable looking at men walking without any clothes? No, it's not like that. When a baby borns, you used to see them like that. So it's about the concept the jains follow, that you are not attached to a single thing, whether it's clothes, whether it's food or whether it's anything. We are now passing through another village and I see a group of young boys and men standing at a tri-junction.

9:08Have you ever seen a naked person walking like this before? No sir, we don't know, we haven't, we haven't seen this sir The thing is that I don't know much about them I haven't seen them before, today is the first time that I've seen them Have you never even heard of these monks? They walk through the streets naked, what if someone gets angry at them?

9:34There is nothing like that The difference is that these people are ascetics These are revered People worship them, touch their feet, serve them No one will serve a common man These are holy men These are God So naturally everyone will serve them

9:54After walking for nearly 10 kilometers without taking a break The barefoot monk and his followers have reached a roadside village called Pilana. He will stay here overnight in this half-constructed storehouse.

10:13It's a very small room with bare walls and only one window. Munipranam Yisagar is sitting cross-legged on an elevated seat placed on top of a broad wooden bench. His followers are sitting down on the floor singing devotional songs and praying. They are offering him flowers and coconut fruit. Tonight the monk will sleep on this bare hardwood bed without a mattress or pillows and no dinner. He will stop speaking after 8pm. The group will embark on the next leg of the journey early tomorrow morning.

10:54Rajesh Joshi:Muni Pranam Asagar is an educated man in his 50s who studied maths, physics and chemistry at university. He has a portly frame and a delightful smile and he looks younger than his years. I spoke with him again before his nightly vow of silence. First of all, please tell me a bit about your personal life. Was there an atmosphere in your childhood home that led you to the path of becoming a monk?

11:27Yes, the atmosphere at home was normal like you find in any Jain household. Going to the temple, beholding Jain deities and occasionally coming into contact with Kouros. So when I look back, I remember that whenever someone died, I would think a lot about it. This person has died. Where has he gone after death? Where do people go after they die? I used to think about it a lot and I was always curious to know about the truth of life. I'd think if everyone eventually has to leave this world, they also have their desires and dreams in life. Where do these disappear? I used to think about it a lot.

12:18So, who is eligible or qualified to attain liberation? Anyone in the world can be a candidate, and there is no guarantee that a soul who begins this practice in one lifetime will necessarily succeed. It may take two to four lifetimes, or even ten or twenty, but anyone can attain liberation.

12:44It's a prerequisite to be born a man to attain moksha But is it also necessary to renounce all material possessions Or can liberation be attained even while living in comfort, convenience, wealth and opulence?

13:06The path to moksha is this As long as one remains living in comforts and wealth, one's attachment to them grows. Until we detach ourselves from our family and renounce our attachment to wealth and possessions, we'll not have the time to conquer our body and our passions. Only by renouncing all these things does one attain liberation.

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14:33Rajesh Joshi:This is Heart and Soul from the BBC World Service. I am Rajesh Yoshi. This is The Naked Monks. For Munipranam Misagar, living fully nude is the ultimate renunciation of worldly positions to escape from the cycle of rebirth and reach liberation of his soul, the concept known as moksha. But this path has risks.

15:04Do you ever feel when you are travelling that there is any danger to your life, that someone might attack you or say nasty words to you? Have you ever experienced anything like that? Yes, yes, it happens. Once in the state of Bihar, there was a little roadside shop. So while I was walking past, a man saw me and pulled a dagger from his shop. He was ready to attack me. At that moment I thought my life was over. And there weren't many people around me. That man was talking utter nonsense and he was swearing. And he showed me the dagger and started threatening me and said, I'll kill you. I'll kill you if you ever come back here again.

15:53I'll do this. I'll do that. as he was constantly bravering, it really felt like he was going to kill me. So I walked away from him very bravely because I was on the move and kept moving. So I decided I wouldn't stop my momentum. And I thought to myself, he's going to hit me now. If I have to face death and if my time has come, so I'll face that also. With that thought in my mind, I just kept walking away. And I suppose that was my good karma that he kept shouting a lot but did not strike me with the weapon he was holding. So when I got about 10 paces ahead of him, I felt I had somehow escaped.

16:35These kinds of incidents do take place.

16:46Rajesh Joshi:But being nude isn't the only path to liberate one's soul in Jainism. there are two main branches in Jain religion, the Digambara and Shvetambara. In Sanskrit, Shvetambara means to be white-clad, while Digambara means sky-clad, describing the male monks who walk naked, such as Munipranami Sagara. The Shvetambara sect believes that moksha can be reached without nudity, while the Digambaras believe nudity is necessary to reach moksha. And this is a path only open to men. There is a mix of doctrinal and societal reasons that Degambara Jains don't think women can reach moksha. There is a belief that women's bone structure lacks strength so they cannot follow certain practices or mudras.

17:30Rajesh Joshi:Then there is an entrenched societal view that women should not be naked in public.

17:43Rajesh Joshi:Aastha Jain is another female follower of the Guru. She has come from her home in New Delhi to listen to his sermons and is pursuing a PhD in Jainism from a top university in the capital. Women are not entitled to moksha, only you have to be born a man to attain moksha. And this is a very fundamental part of the Jain philosophy. Why? One thing we should always accept is that moksha is not a one birth thing. So don't worry, if you're even a woman, it's not your last life. If women, there are certain conditions, there are natural certain circumstances because of which we cannot apply or we cannot follow jinn mudra 100%.

18:29Somebody will turn around and say this is a very male-dominated narrative because they have laid down the rules for women. Women can't take off their clothes, men can do that. isn't a discrimination. Women wants to take off their clothes, it's up to them. But it's natural calamity. Men have not made them women like this. They have their own monthly cycles and everything. For them, women, it's difficult to do them. This is how the nature it is. Moksha is a very beautiful concept. It's not male or female. We can be any creature. I can become ant, I can become plant, I can become male, I can become female.

19:05Anything can happen in this world. That is how we live.

19:08Rajesh Joshi:To be a Digambar Jain is to accept that moksha may not be achievable in this life, but those that seek it face a difficult and vulnerable path of living publicly nude without positions. Yet, despite the harshness of this chosen lifestyle, scholars say that the number of these monks have increased in recent years. While there are no official government statistics, an online database called Digambar Jain Wiki lists just over 2 ,000 monks walking across the country at the moment, completely naked. Given that this practice restarted in 1947 following the end of British rule, it's astonishing just how many of these monks now exist.

19:51Rajesh Joshi:I kept asking, what keeps drawing a younger generation of men to this harsh and demanding lifestyle? Walking behind Munipranam is Agar in a loincloth and with a white cloth over his left shoulder is his younger disciple in his early 40s. He has childlike eyes and the body of an athlete. He once had a completely different life. He worked in a multinational corporation and spent some time living in South Korea. Now Anunay Sagar has no positions and survives on handouts from strangers. My parents used to call me Chandra, Chandra Prakash, Moonlight. Chandra Prakash Jain. Chandra Prakash. And now you are called?

20:34Khyllak Anunay Sagar. I used to do various adventurous activities. like paragliding, and I also played judo at state level. So I played for four years, and I liked music also, and I liked cooking also. You're wearing a piece of cloth, that is it, and there's another piece of cloth on your shoulder. Just tell me about that journey. So when I was studying in my school, I started reading texts, gen texts. It used to tell me something, that what you are doing is not everything. If you want to attain some peace, if you want to attain the enlightenment, if you want to attain nirvana, you have to do something.

21:25You have to quit these pleasures. You know, we are made in a certain way. Nature has made us in a certain way. we have anger, jealousy, hatred, love, sexual feelings. How do you curb that feeling? How do you release that feeling? How do you release that? I was 20 years old when I took the pledge of celibacy for the first time. And at that time, there were the feelings. The feelings were there. I used to, so when I was in school only, I was there. The guys were there. The friends were there who used to talk rubbish, who used to talk abuse. And I was also part of that group. But I never did anything which is off track.

22:16They used to watch some adult movies. But those things didn't give me that pleasure when I started meditation. And when I got involved with my soul, I realized that whatever these guys are doing, I am getting much more happiness, much more pleasure, much more love inside myself. when our love is not dependent on any other external living or non-living thing it just depends on our own self then you can experience that love forever how do you feel when you imagine a time when you will have to drop this loincloth also and you will have to walk in front of everybody when you think of that moment What goes through your mind?