Everyone goes through their own spiritual phase and journey. There are those who find spiritual points in adulthood, but there are also those who find them in their teens. In fact, a girl from India found her spiritual point at the age of 8 years.
It is Aangi Bagrech, an eight-year-old woman from Surat in Gujarat, India, who is known to have decided to become a nun at a very young age. Quoted from the Mirror, to live a new life, Aangi plucks every strand of her hair by hand.
Aangi's decision to become a nun was neither ordered nor forced. She was inspired by her grandmother who was a Jain nun. The Jain religion is a minority religion that distances itself from the bonds of modern life and consists of about 4.5 million devotees.
In addition to doing hair removal by hand, Aangi is also known to perform the jaw cutting process. Both procedures are part of the process of becoming a Jain nun.
Furthermore, this hair pulling procedure is something that will continue to be done as long as one becomes a Jain nun. It is said that this was done to symbolize that the nuns did not care about physical pain.
Like a nun devoted to religion, Aangi no longer lives at home. He left his home and family since he decided to live his new life.
Jain Nun Life
After undergoing the diksha ceremony or the ceremony of releasing all worldly ties including family and material pleasures, Aangi has now changed his name to Hemagi Ratna Shree Ma. In addition, Aangi also lives with a group of other nuns.
As a jain nun, Aangi travels on foot everywhere. Plus, they also never go anywhere for more than 20 days except during the rainy season.
Jain nuns are also known to use no electricity and survive on alms, wearing only simple white clothes. From the family side, Aangi's father, Dinesh, spoke up.
"She was tested by her teachers and they found Aangi qualified to become a nun. Aangi spent almost two years with the monks and is now going to live her life in the monkhood," Dinesh told the Mirror.
"Aangi refused cell phones, valuable gifts and clothes. Aangi sat on a nine day fast with a diksha request, about five months ago. My whole family feels proud that a girl from our family left the materialistic world."