Ex-Union min’s father on ‘Santhara’ attains Samadhi in Jhansi

Jhansi: Former Union minister Pradeep Jain Aditya's father who was on ‘Santhara', a sacred vow in Jainism involving voluntary and gradual fasting to death, attained Samadhi at the age of 91 in Jhansi late on Sunday. He was laid to rest at the famous 700-year-old Jain pilgrimage site, Karguanji Jain temple premises, amid chanting hymns by thousands of people who thronged the place from Monday morning.According to Pradeep Jain, who served as MoS, Rural Development in the 2009 Union Cabinet, his father Vishnu Kumar Jain was a cancer survivor. He was religiously inclined from the beginning. On February 6, he stopped eating food and expressed his wish to attain Samadhi. "He stopped eating food and taking medicines and took water only once a day," Pradeep said.
Vishnu Kumar Jain was later shifted to the Karguanji temple, where regular religious preachings were carried out for him. On Sunday evening, he was elevated to the position of a Muni (monk), initiated by Muni Vishwa Mitra Sagar. He was given the new name Vishnu Sagar Maharaj.On Monday, Vishnu Sagar Maharaj was laid to rest in the traditional sacred manner in which a monk's last rites are carried out, with a sacred procession known as ‘Viman Dola'. Thousands of people gathered to pay their homage. As per Jain traditions, monks who attain Santhara are taken in a procession in a sitting posture. The funeral pyre is created in a pit dug in the ground, where it is burnt, and later a Samadhi is constructed at the place.