India, at the age of 8 becomes a nun, giving up 60 million dollars of inheritance

She could have become a very rich heiress, because hers is a very wealthy Indian family of diamond merchants, with assets of $60 million. Instead Devanshi Sanghvi, at just eight years old, decided to give up luxury and devote herself to religion, becoming a very young nun.

His family is part of the 4.5 million faithful who follow the Jainism, one of the oldest religions in the world, born in India more than 2,500 years ago. According to experts, the number of Jains giving up material possessions has increased rapidly over the years, although faithful children remain very rare.

Devanshi Sanghvi took i diksha, the vows, in the presence of elderly Jain monks and tens of thousands of people, in the city of Surat, in the western state of Gujarat. Since then, the little one lives in a upashrayaa monastery of Jain monks and nuns.

A family friend explains that Devanshi, who also has a younger sister, can no longer stay at home: «Her parents are no longer her parents, she is now a sadhvi (a nun). The life of a Jain nun is very austere. Now he will have to walk everywhere, he will never be able to take any kind of transport, he will sleep on a white sheet on the floor and he will not be able to eat after sunset.’

The girl’s parents were already famous for being “extremely religious”, and Devanshi is described as “prone to the spiritual life since she was little”: it seems that never watched television and has never been to malls and restaurants, as reported by the Times of India. “From a very young age, Devanshi pray three times a day and even went on a fast at the age of two.

But, even if almost the entire Jain community supports Devanshi’s choice, the story has raised a heated debate: many are wondering why the family could not wait for the girl to reach adulthood before allowing her to make such important choices.

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