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details in his letter to Dayachandbhai in his letter of 29-11894. The artist of magic Shri Nathu Manchhachand was travelling with him as his cook.
Other passengers on board included Prof. Jnanendranath Chakravarti of Allahbad College, Shri Dharampal, the secretary of the Bauddha Dharma Sabha, Mrs. Annie Besant, the President of the London Theosophical Society and her secretary Miss Muler. When Virchandbhai explained to them the essence of the Jain Darshan, they were surprised and said, 'It is a pity, the Jains do not publish books on such wonderful philosophy in English'.
He saw to it that the dignity of the Jain community was preserved in countries abroad. He had to stop for a couple of days at New York en route to Chicago. At that time, the secretary of Parliament of Religions, Mr. William Pipe was also in New York. He told Virchandbhai that all special arrangement to enable him to follow the Jain tenets will be made for him at the expense of the conference.
Virchandbhai, however, felt that it would be demeaning for the well-to-do Jain community if the people of America bore the expenses of a representative who was there to propogate the Jain Darshan. So he thanked Mr. Pipe and told him that he would stay there at his own expense. CONTACT WITH MAHATMA GANDHI
When Gandhiji was not yet a Mahatma, and when he was experimenting with food-habits, Virchand Gandhi had joined him in one such experiment. Gandhiji has mentioned that in his autobiography - 'My experiments with Truth' (part 2, chapter 3 of the Gujarati edition). 'Had Mahatmaji not mentioned the fact, we would not have known anything about it' this is what Pandit Sukhlalji has written in his
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