Jains in America looking to pass on faith to next generation
At the 20th biennial JAINA Convention in California over the Independence Day weekend, nearly 3,500 Jains, followers of an ancient Indian sect, were treated to highly sought-after speakers such as Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi with 1.6 million followers on Instagram, and Gaur Gopal Das, a motivational speaker who has more than 2 million subscribers on YouTube.
But the real stars of the show, in a sense, were young Jains such as Pooja and Poonam Shah, 36 and 28 respectively.
The theme for the convention was “Jain Religion in the 21st Century,” and nearly everyone in attendance seemed to be aware that the next eight decades depend on handing the faith over to the millennial and Gen Z Jains.
