Going solo in a commune

From studying in isolation, praying alone, and spreading the message of god via online seminars, monks and nuns across India’s religious orders say it’s for the first time in their lives that they’ve been robbed of the community

Sikkim's monasteries have been in the news over the last few weeks for far from meditative reasons. An alarming rise in COVID-19 infection in the well-known Rumtek monastery left 123 out of 292 monks sick, while at the Nyingma Institute in Lingtam, 125 monks contracted the virus. In each case, a different technique of isolation was adopted. Dr Pempa T Bhutia, director general and secretary, Health, Government of Sikkim, says that at Rumtek, the monks isolated within the monastery with physicians and nurses visiting them when necessary, while in the case of Nyingma, they tried the reverse. “The 125 people who tested positive were kept in the monastery, and 81 monks who were negative were shifted to the COVID  care centre at the Yangthang Junior High School.”

At the Gonjang monastery in Gangtok, a popular tourist hotspot, which has remained closed to the public since before the start of the lockdown last year, 65 out of 88 monks tested positive. While one monk succumbed to the infection, the rest were shifted to the Saramsa Garden COVID care centre 10 kilometres away. “We were the first monastery to conduct mass RT-PCR testing for monks,” says Tenpai Nima, member of the faculty and advisor. There were no cases at the monastery last year, but they picked up this May, says Nima. An ayurvedic medicine centre within the monastery may have been its unwitting source. Its compounder who would come in to work every day was their first case, he recalls, and soon after, four monks started showing symptoms, which is when they requested the government for the tests. The monastery houses 40-odd senior monks who have their own rooms with attached bathrooms, while the younger ones stay in dormitories which have common facilities.

Monks get their RT-PCR tests at the Gonjang monastery in Sikkim. Pic courtesy/Tenpai Nima

The Gonjang monastery has monks as young as nine. “Some of the young monks are orphans. So, the monastery is like their home,” says Nima, adding that in the past few months he has received calls from parents telling him that they want to take their sons home. “At the moment, they are all in isolation, but after that they will return to take them back.”

For 33-year-old monk Ngawang Thinley, who came at age four to the Sakya monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, from the nearby town of Mundgod, which has a prominent Tibetan settlement, a new kind of routine has taken over in the pandemic. Instead of classes with 30 others and large prayer meetings, he now studies and prays individually, and with no new classes, the most they do is occasionally get together in small groups to discuss and review what they have been taught. They stay two to a room, do not let anyone from outside come in, and are in charge of sanitising the rooms every day. The monastery has had no cases in the past year. “No one goes out,” says Thinley. “We all stay indoors wearing masks, some even two. We also pray so that Corona doesn’t touch us.”

The Jain Vishva Bharati Institute  in Ladnun, Rajasthan. Pic/Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

Samani Dr Rohini Pragya is associate professor at the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute in Ladnun, Rajasthan. She stays with other Jain nuns in the university’s large campus. The pandemic has restricted some religious activities while ways of living have significantly changed. Jain ascetics rely on the community for food and shelter, and Samani Pragya who left her home to become a part of the order almost 21 years ago, recalls the initial challenges of having to collect food (bhiksha) from homes, and how the food wouldn’t always suit her health. But the saman order under the Jain tradition puts great emphasis on academic pursuits and it was education, she says, that compelled her to be a part of the institution as a nun. Collection of food from outside, gatherings and preaching activities have stopped due to the rise in COVID cases, some of which have surfaced in their own campus. But its large, open spaces have ensured that the infection hasn’t proved too challenging.

Samani Pragya says that education has not been impacted because the saman order has always been open to access to the internet. The samanis continue to engage in online lectures, seminars and research. “Monks and nuns used to talk about different energies when they came in contact with a guru and his aura, but now, with restrictions on in-person contact, these spiritual experiences have changed. Religion will find new meaning [with followers] like always,” she says. The other big change that has occurred is communication with family. While the nuns wouldn’t be allowed to speak to their loved ones on the phone, post-pandemic, they can. It’s so that they can be abreast of their family’s health and organise a network so that people benefit from spiritual strength. “This openness of the guru has been remarkable,” notes Samani Pragya, “embedded in the tradition and yet open to new possibilities.”

Monks at the Sakya monastery study in small groups and get their RT-PCR tests. Pics courtesy/Ngawang Thinley

The past year on the other hand has brought enormous strain with unrelenting work for Sisters Swarna and Erica of Mt Mary and Nirmala Niketan in Mumbai respectively. Sister Swarna who teaches at the St Sebastian Goan High School, Dabul, has been working online throughout May and has had no summer vacation. Last year, getting used to the online process was difficult for parents, but now, she says, people have adjusted themselves to the format. Apart from helping by providing money and resources through provincial aid and the diocese for the needy, she is also in charge of running a working women’s hostel where the boarders were nurses working at the Lilavati Hospital. With as many as eight of them testing positive, she says the hospital’s administration had to be requested to provide accommodation to them. At present, the hostel is closed.

The Daughters of the Heart of Mary congregation, better known as the Nirmala Niketan Sisters, run two colleges—the College of Social Work and the College of Home Science and Polytechnic, with the 17 nuns residing in the hostel with the students. With no outside help, some of the younger nuns had to take up cleaning responsibilities while also distributing ration and cooked meals, which they got through the BMC to the homeless. Although they were fortunate to avoid COVID cases, Sister Erica informs that some of the nuns were dealing with health issues, including cancer and had to pay regular visits to the hospital for chemotherapy treatment. “But we never left the sisters alone in the hospital. One of us braved our way and we spent nights with whoever was sick. Since the parents of some of the students lost their jobs in the pandemic, it also became difficult collecting fees and yet, the classes didn’t stop.”

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