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THE GREAT ACHARYA
Shri CHIMANLAL J. SHAH, M.A.
Among the great Jaina Acharyas of the last fifty years, the late Vijayavallabhasuri enjoys a very prominent and popular place. He was a favourite with both the old and new generations of the Jaina laity.
The key to his popularity lay in his earnest desire to see that the laity was helped spiritually and otherwise. He led the austere life of a Jaina sadhu carrying out all the injunctions prescribed by the scriptures. Thus the orthodox mind saw nothing in him that would discredit him but at the same time, he talked and preached about anything and everything that would go under the name of welfare activities for the betterment of the Jaina Samgha. For more than half a century, he carried on a crusade in his inimitable way for the educational and social uplift of his followers. If he had been an educationist himself or in the alternative if he had a band of experts by his side, one does not know what wonders he would have worked. In reality, the net result of all his educational and social activities was limited. All the same, the new generation of unorthodox outlook was always happy with him and appreciated all his laudable
efforts.
This flair for activities outside the ritualistic life of a Jaina sadhu he inherited from his great Guru Atmaramji. Both seemed to believe that it was no use merely preaching religion to a Samgha that was socially and psychologically not prepared to receive it. In economic
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