Jainism in a Global Perspective - Collection of Jain papers of 1993 Parliament of World Religions, Chicago

SR No.: 014010
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain, Shreeprakash Pandey
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 402
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 23 MB

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Jainism in a Global Perspective
shoule be directed towards that goal. The torch of morality should never be allowed to go out. Our efforts may not succeed, but we will at least not be blamed for not making them.
The work relating to aṇuvrata made some headway. But a new confusion arose. Our own followers started saying, 'Acarya Śrī no longer insists on the people becoming Jains. He has slackened the propagation of Terapantha-- on the other hand some non-Jains started saying that Acārya Śri wanted to convert everyone to Jainism under the cover of aṇuvrata. If on one side there were these reactions, on the other quite a few people stressed the great need for the Movement. C. Rajgopalachari had written at the time of the first session of anuvrata. 'In my opinion this (Anuvrata Movement) is the first step in the direction of people's moral and cultural emancipation'.
While many Western celebrities like Bertrand Russel and Martin Luther King were organizing huge peace rallies exhorting the people to raise their voice against the senseless genocide caused by the nuclear holocaust in Hiroshirma and Nagasaki by a strange coincidence, as it were, a relatively unknown religious preceptor of the East heading a Jaina sect, seated far away in a remote town of the Thara desert of Rajasthan, was engaged in an indentical mission, thought in a small way, of rousing the masses against violence and moral torpor. He heard the inner call that commanded him to throw off the yoke of sectarian dogmatism and launched a crusade against caste, untouchability, subjection of women and religious intolerance. His response to the call resulted in the birth of Aṇuvrata Movement. It was in this very way that Simon and Andrew responded when Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee called to them. The only difference was that the call which Acarya Tulasi heard came from within, not unlike the one Saint Joan had heard centuries before in France. But unlike as in her case the inner voice directed the Acarya to launch a movement for liberating the individual from a bigoted sectarian outlook, fanaticism and an unethical approach, thereby automatically ensuring the emancipation of mankind.
The root of the malady lies in the individual. The Acarya realized that society cannot be purged without an inner transformation of man. Instinc