Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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The Unknown Pilgrims
- a series of booklets for children, a simple presentation of the doctrine with imaginative and inspiring illustrations;
- a monthly review for grown-ups, which Mataji edits and of which she herself writes most of the articles. 115 Her aim is to help towards right knowledge and the articles, presented in accordance with a harmonious over-all design, conduce to this end.
A brief look at the contents of the Granthamālā reveals this: Mātāji, with the utmost simplicity, puts at the service of the saṁgha her vast store of knowledge and her extraordinary ability to approach a wide variety of subjects, probe them in depth and transmit them to others in a clear and accessible form. She communicates to them her own intense zeal for study and teaching and her fervent bhakti.
Their total number is small, but nevertheless we must make mention of two other learned ǎryikās: Āryikā Viśuddhamati, who has translated the Trilokasara, an important cosmographical treatise, and Āryikā Supärśvamati, well-known for her pravacanas.
E- Āryikā Śrī Jñānamati Mātāji
So far no biography of Mätāji has been written. Certain persons would have liked to do so, but she has always refused. Recently a śrāvaka, a poet of Jhansi, wrote, in her honour a long poem of one hundred and twenty-eight verses in Hindi: Śri Jñanamati jīvana darśana,116 in which there is a eulogy commemorating her life and her
work.
Mātāji shuns publicity. She pursues her task ardently, living her life in accordance with the stricth obervance of the Digambaras, caring nothing for honours nor for making a name for herself. She is truly called 'Jñānamati' and 'Śramani', as being one for whom the daily acquisition, enlargement and deepening of knowledge is the supreme
115 The review contains about 40 pp. For further details of these publications, cf. Appendix I and Bibliography.
116 S. Jaina, 1976.