Surakshit Khatra

SR No.: 009270
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Usha Maru
Publisher: Hansraj C Maru
Publication Year: 2014
Total Pages: 219
Language: Gujarati, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Gujarati, Book_Devnagari, & Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

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and beyond. Yet above all, Hansraj Maru is a Jain. Others might see that Jainism manifests in Hansraj as a vegetarian, as someone who abstained from alcohol his whole life, even as work demanded attending gala dinners where he was pressured by his superiors to indulge. Yet more deeply, he has lived with Jain values, Jain ideas, Jain practices, throughout his life.
He was raised in a small rural town in India as a farmer's son on one acre of land. When he was just eight years, old he would spend hours with Jain monks helping them write prayers after his school and farm work. After moving to the United States, he founded the Jain Center of Connecticut and taught for over two decades. He also was a regional Vice President for the Jain Association of North America, an association with a membership of about 100 Jain Centers. Even today, just like this phone call, we get 20 to 30 phone calls during the Jain festivals of Paryushan, Das laxan, and Mahaveer Jayanti asking how to find the Jain Center of Connecticut.
To all who are close to him he is known for his loving personality with unshakable patience. As an executive at FuelCell Energy, Inc., he would talk with the same compassion to his boss as to the cleaner. All levels of employees, from secretaries to other chiefs, would come to his office for support and advice. When he volunteered with the public schools, we always heard about his calm, consistent efforts with all involved. While I try not to pick up any unknown numbers, he still answers the phone calls looking for the Jain Center with the same patience.
People who drive up the quarter-mile long hilly driveway looking for a Jain temple at 7 Trailing Ridge Road will find a house that Hans left years ago. Hans, who left India, then Chicago, then Connecticut, now settled in Boston, is and always will be known for his Jain values, his Jain way of life, but most importantly, his Jain way of being.
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