12-year-old Surat boy becomes a Jain monk

A 12-year-old boy from Surat, in the west Indian state of Gujarat, has decided to renounce his family life to join the order of Jain monks.

Diamond merchant Dipesh Shah's son Bhavya wants to renounce family life saying it's "full of sins at every step."

Seeking Diksha was his own decision, said Bhavya. Diksha is the ceremonial initiation into the Jain order by choosing to renounce not only material comforts, but also emotional attachments.

"I have decided to become a monk so that I can keep myself away from sins of this material world. This is my own decision," Bhavya was quoted as saying by the media. He added that he was happy to take "the path of truth shown by God" and said he hoped his parents would follow suit one day.

Last year, yet another youth shocked the country by deciding to renounce his family life.

Varshil Shah, 17, renounced the world to become a monk just weeks after scoring a stupendous 99.9 percentile in Class 12 Commerce examinations. The teen changes his name to Suvirya Ratna Vijayji Maharaj after his initiation.

"I always wanted to live a good life in peace and happiness but that happiness should have come without me harassing anyone," Varshil said in a note announcing his decision to become a monk. "No one should get hurt by me and I should get endless happiness. I witnessed in Uttarayan how people enjoyed when they got to cut the kites of others. I saw in Diwali people derived happiness at the cost of sleep of birds and animals."

"I noticed money has become paramount for many in the society. Such people believe that 'win they must all time and defeat others.' They prosper and 'live by killing others.' This trend in society has been worrying me. How is this happiness when you cause pain to others? Can't we get real happiness without paining others?"