Atmanandji Jainacharya Janmashatabdi Smarakgranth

SR No.: 012050
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Atmanand Janma Shatabdi Smarak Trust
Publication Year: 1936
Total Pages: 1042
Language: Hindi, Gujarati, English
Classification: Smruti_Granth & Articles
File Size: 30 MB

Page 128

Chaitaudas
is not to be found in the Dictionary of Jainism. 'Whatever is destined must come to pass' is not the whole truth.
He saw that true Jainism was lost in hoary antiquity. The independence of character, wide outlook beyond death, tolerance for all differences of opinion and thought had all been smother the dust and storm, bigotry and persecution of the rulers and the political struggle of the people for existence.
The first thing that struck him as the root of all evils was the religious demoralization of the people under persecution of the Moslem power. Aurengzeb in his unscrupulous bigotry charged a number of temples into mosques and oppressed those who were of a different faith. The Sikhs and Mahrattas had to rise against his rule and establish a number of kingdoms which were often at war with each other. People were afraid lest their temples and libraries should not meet the same fate as it was under Moslem rule and were contented without them. They acquired only oral instruction from sadhus. When the balauce of power was after all settled in favour of the Engli:h, the peaceful atmosphere of the country gave birth to several reformers. So far as the Jain community is coucerned, Swami Atmara nji was the greatest pillar of light iu Northern India, and Gujarat and Mewar. In Mewar and Gujarat he still found magnificeut temples which attracted a large number of people for inspiration of noble thoughts and acquisition of knowledge. He saw that Swami Dayanand and missionaries of his time might be right in condemping the worship in temples of gods and goddesses at whose altar animals were sacrificed and where revelry and sensuality prevailed. The worship in a Jain temple was of an ideal and temple itself was a sacred place where Universal peace, love and charity were daily inculcated. He also noticed that where such temples did not exist, people were ignoraut and were easily misled into other faiths, He realized the necessity of having temples under changed circumstaaces and he was highly successful in his mission in spite of opposition.
This was only a means to an end. His chief object was propagation of true Jainism. Jain temples were a great source of noble
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