________________
SPIRIT OF NON-VIOLENCE FOR
POSTERITY
[Key note speech as Chief Guest at the 6th Biennial J.A.I.N.A. Convention, 1991 at Stanford University, Stanford, California, U. S. A., 4th July, 1991]
It is a great privilege to be invited to address this largest ever congregation of JAIN community outside India.
The Federation of Jain Association in North America deserves warm applause for transforming the 6th biennial JAIN convention into an event of historic significance, dedicated to extending Jain heritage of Ahimsa to the next generation.
The fellow feelings of the 40,000 Jains living in USA and Canada and the dauntless spirit of the activists among them makes me recall what the great German writer Goethe wrote once:
"The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities, but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant is close to us in
spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden"
We are fortunate to have in our midst renowned Jain Acharyas, Munis, Gurus and learned men. Our salutations to them with a deep bow in the guiding spirit of the ‘NAMOKAR MANTRA'. May their blessings help us achieve spiritual selfsufficiency and get rid of our negative vibrations.
A poet has aptly said,
"There is so much good in the worst of us, And so much bad in the best of us,
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