Mumbai News: 9-Year-Old Dombivali Boy Set To Become Youngest Monk

Mumbai: The Jain community in Dombivali has initiated grand preparations as for the first time five people, including a family of three, will walk the path of initiation in a joint diksha ceremony. The Dombivali family, which is all set to renounce the world, also includes a nine-year-old kid who will be the youngest diksharthi of Dombivali.

While most of the parents enthusiastically create an age-milestone photo album for their child, Jigar Shah and Kiran Shah have created spiritual milestones for their child Saiyam. With the name that literally means restraint, Saiyam was taken to pilgrims, made to worship daily, directed to observe fasts and more, as he kept growing older. After eight years of indulging himself in religious rituals, the kid will walk the path of self-detachment at the age of just nine years.

Saiyam’s parents told the Free Press Journal that the family used to attend the sermons delivered by the Jain monk Jagatshekharvijay Maharaj during the lockdown in 2020. With time, Saiyam got extremely involved in the religious rituals performed by the acharya, which gave hints to his parents about his wish to attain diksha.

Jigar Shah, Saiyam’s father, said, “Although I and my wife Kiran married and led a worldly life, we always tried to get Saiyam involved in religious activities. We had mutually decided that if some day Saiyam expresses a wish to attain diksha, we will not restrict him and let him walk on the path of spirituality.”

According to their assumptions, Saiyam expressed his wish to attain diksha after attending the monk’s sermon, to which his parents agreed and they also decided to renounce the world after Saiyam’s diksha. However, on the child’s demand, the whole family decided to attain diksha on the same day.

“Initially I did not agree with Saiyam’s diksha, thinking that he is too young but maharaj saheb guided us very well and inspired us to take the hard step. I was also sceptical about Saiyam’s wish of attaining diksha together since I had my job and even the loan instalments to repay but with maharaj saheb’s guidance I wrapped up all my work and will now walk the path of saiyam with my family,” said Shah.

On April 15, the family will attain diksha from the Vijayrajendra Surishvarji of the Bhuvanbhanu community. As they embrace monkhood with complete detachment from the world, Saiyam and Jigar will become the disciples of Krupashekharvijayji Maharaj, who is the disciple of the revered Ajitshekhar Surishvarji whereas Kiran will become the disciple of jain nun Hitagnyadh Rashri. Along with the family, a 30-year-old Sweety Shah from Dombivali and an 18-year-old Krisha Mehta from Kutch will also walk the difficult path of renouncement on the same day.

Shreyaskar Parshvabhakti Jain Sangh located in Pandurangwadi of Dombivali will host the diksha ceremony for all the five diksharthis and grand preparations are already underway to celebrate the historic diksha ceremony. “Many other Jain sanghs wanted to host the ceremony for this family but we were adamant to hold the diksha in Dombivali. It will be a historic day since for the first time, five people will attain diksha in Dombivali and an entire family will walk this path, marking yet another first for Dombivali,” said Jayesh Mehta, president of the sangh.