Jain Spirit 2000 03 No 03

SR No.: 528983
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, UK_Jain Spirit, & UK
File Size: 14 MB

Page 5

GLOBAL NEWS
A SPECIAL MESSAGE WAS DELIVERED BY DR. L.M. Singhvi at the Global Launch on 13th November 1999 at Brent Town Hall, London. Dr. L. M. Singhvi was the Indian High Commissioner to UK between 1991 and 1998. He is a world renowned expert on religion and inter-faith matters, and author of several books and articles on Jainism. He lives in New Delhi, India.
"It is a great privilege for me to join you this evening to celebrate the arrival of Jain Spirit. To celebrate the arrival of what could be the harbinger of a renaissance, a resurgence.
The Jain spirit requires reinforcement and self-renewal, of the kind we often find happening within ourselves when we visit a temple, and Jain Spirit is very much a temple. A temple is not brick and mortar; it is not stone and sculpture. A temple is an edifice of ideas and culture, and Jain Spirit, in that sense, could be likened to a temple, one which enshrines a tradition, and offers the opportunity for self-renewal. That is what the Jain Spirit can do for one and all. That is what Jain Spirit can bring through our doors, to our hearts and our souls.
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When I received the first copy of Jain Spirit I felt my spirit uplifted, for this new enterprise is creating and sharing a message. Our life is ennobled in the sharing of that message. We need this initiative to celebrate that ennobling of our lives, through the vehicle of thought, culture and ethics, and through the vehicle of identity and self-discovery. Each issue of Jain Spirit I'm sure will be a voyage of self-discovery
Here is an enterprise with which I am very proud to be the community."
Jain Spirit March May 2000
JAIN SPIRIT GLOBAL LAUNCH
associated, for it will renew us and take us places, and it is this self-renewal which is spiritual. This spirituality is dynamism, self-renewal and self-discovery. This spirituality takes an enormous amount of maturity, both in the outside world, and in the inside world. To travel from the outside to the inner space, and to travel from the inner space to the outer space is what this Jain Spirit, as a vehicle of thought, is all about.
I am very happy that we have here some vehicle to provide us what I might call, in a very pedestrian way, 'food for thought'. It is not as if eaten once, it is enough. It is not something that we must leave to the parasites, but something which we must internalise. It is something with which we must come face to face in this new awakening of Jainism. Jain Spirit is a vehicle for that awakening
In 1893 at the parliament of world religions in Chicago, Mr. Virchand Gandhi brought the Jain message to the representatives of all the world's religions. Swami Vivekananda brought an electrifying impact on the audience and said that 'I represent a civilisation of tolerance. I am proud to belong to a civilisation which provides shelter to people in despair. I am proud to belong to a civilisation where humanity has been enthroned in the hearts of one and all. And when he spoke of tolerance, he spoke in a sense of Anekant, in a reverence for all life. When he spoke of the traditions of India, he spoke of Ahimsa. He spoke of humanity's pilgrimage on this earth.
This is the tradition of Jainism: one of tolerance and nonviolence. I am sure Jain Spirit will share this tradition, not only with those who are born as Jains, but with all humanity, irrespective of faith, to build a community of affirmative, assertive non-violence. Jain Spirit will build a community of peace, of ethical principles, and it is through this that it will find a tremendous fulfilment. Jain Spirit stands at the threshold of a new century.
May God give Jain Spirit many years to serve the cause of non-violence and spread peace to all of humanity. Thank you very much for inviting me to come here to see so many friends and to have the pleasure of receiving the collective blessings of