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Aņuvrata : the Jaina Path to SelfTransformation and World Peace
S.L. GANDHI
Anuvrata is a network of self-transformed people w ho volunteer to discipline themselves by accepting small vows and adhering to them out of conviction without expecting any reward for it. It is a movement of small vows or what we call a movement to rid society, nation and the world of moral filth and hatred. It is based on the view that the transformation of an individual into a responsible self-disciplined human being will lead naturally to the ushering in of a nonviolent socio-political world order paving the way for the lasting peace in the world which is torn by strife, terrorism and narrow nationalistic considerations. Selfishness seems to hold the people fast in its grip. It is being institutionalized rapidly and the outlook of the people is getting narrower and narrower.
The Aņuvrata Movement has been engaged in the noble task of uplifting human life and revitalizing the rapidly crumbling moral and spiritual values among the people of the world irrespective of caste, creed and colour for the last forty four years. Launched on March 1, 1949 by Acārya Śri Tulasi the head of a Jaina Sect and a leading visionary of India - the movement has since grown steadily in size and stature. Though it does not lay claim to any spectacular success or achievement, there is no gainsaying the fact that its universal appeal for self-awakening has created a great impact on the outlook and behaviour of many people. It was halied and patronized by eminent people like late Dr. Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajgopalachari, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Jai Prakash Narayan. It has been striving to infuse with new life people degenerating fast into what T.S. Eliot aptly calls 'automations or living shadows inhabiting the great wasteland.'
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