Executive Leaves ₹75 Cr Job to Become Jain Monk

Prime Highlights

Prakash Shah, a senior Reliance executive, renounced his ₹75 crore annual salary to become a Jain monk.
Alongside his wife, he took diksha on Mahavir Jayanti, choosing a spiritual life over luxury.

Key Facts

Shah was a key figure in Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, leading crucial projects including petcoke marketing and Jamnagar gasification.
He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay with a postgraduate qualification in chemical engineering.
Both of them have now adopted a celibate life of asceticism, simplicity, and barefoot asceticism according to Jain traditions.

Key Background

Prakash Shah’s decision to give up one of the most lucrative corporate roles in India has drawn widespread attention. As Vice President at Reliance Industries, Shah was among Mukesh Ambani’s most trusted aides. He managed mega-sized projects like petcoke promotion and intricately complex Jamnagar gasification. His educational qualifications were no less impressive—chemical engineering from IIT Bombay and an advanced postgraduate degree, making him the perfect candidate for India’s highest industrial conglomerate.

Although his role was accompanied by prestige, wealth, and political influence, Shah had a higher spiritual vocation in the years since. That inner quest came to its peak recently as he and his wife, Nain Shah, took diksha—a solemn initiation into monkhood in Jainism. They chose Mahavir Jayanti, one of the most sacred days in Jainism, for this significant shift. The ceremony marked their official admission into a life of complete renunciation.

Since then, the two have fully embraced the ascetic life of Jain monks. They dress in basic white garb, walk barefooted, observe strict celibacy, and own nothing, following the concepts of ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), and aparigraha (non-attachment). Their new life requires not just control over one’s senses but complete renunciation of worldly luxury.

Jain monkhood demands rigorous physical and moral discipline. The couple’s choice is one of deep spiritual direction and to leave behind all worldly things in the quest for salvation and tranquility of mind. Theirs is a remarkable story not so much due to the wealth they left behind, but in that it shows how even those who are at professional and material pinnacles of accomplishment can be satisfied with simplicity and spirituality.

This transformation of heart also serves to point out the enduring legacy of Jain philosophy on modern India, reminding society that the pursuit of meaning and pursuit of truth are at times beyond the limits of business success and material wealth.