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always brings happiness in this life as also in future lives." Seeing that Ghasilal was firm in his words, Acharya Shri allowed him to stay with the group of his disciple for some days. At last, Acharya Shri Jawaharlalji granted him Dixa in 1952 at Jashwantgadh. After a few days, some thieves took away his new clothes while he was moving around in the evening. The new mendicant Ghasilal proved his patience and tolerance even at this time. This was the first test of his restrained life and he proved his worth. This was the bright sign of his coming life of renunciation.
Study and Penance: He started moving in several places in Marwar with his preceptor. He passed his first monsoon of 1903 at Jodhpur. The young mendicant Ghasilal began his efforts to take up rigorous penances and secure knowledge from whatever corner he can. In the beginning his learning-progress was quite slow. He took several days to memorize even one stanza or a lesson. But he could grasp his lessons speedily as the days passed. The cover over his knowledge began to weaken and as a result he could memorize DashVaikatik Sootra in the first monsoon itself and began with the study of Uttaradhyayan Sootra. He spent his second monsoon at Beawar, third at Bikaner, forth at Udaipur, fifth at Gangapat, sixth at Ratlam, seventh at Chandla, eighth at Jaora and ninth at Indore. He committed to memory several chapters and pleasures of many scriptures. During his monsoon at Indore, he studied Sanskrit Margopadeshika, Hitopadesh, Siddhanta Kaumudi, Urdu, Persian, Arabi and grammar in Prakrit. He went on studying scriptures day and night without rest, and studied well the principles of scriptures, Darshan, Astrology etc. He had unusual poetic skill and many of his poems were being recited in congregations.
After the monsoon of Indore, his preceptor Shri Jawaharlalji Maharaj wanted to make his beloved disciple Shri Ghasilal more and exceptionally learned person and hence decided to moved in south towards Maharashtra. Accordingly, he spent his tenth monsoon at Ahmednagar. While moving in this region, Ghasilalji learnt Marathi language and studied the literature about Saints Gnaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdeo and others. He committed several poems and other creations of these saints to memory. This is indicative of his outstanding power of learning. He was a broad-hearted man looking towards everyone with sympathy. After this, he spent his 11th monsoon at Junner, 12th at Ghodnadi, 13th at Jamgam, 14th at Ahmednagar, 15th at Ghodnadi, 16th at Miri and 17th at Hivada. He spent many more monsoons in Maharashtra even after this. He came to Saurashtra after 1944 and spent some monsoons in this region. After finishing his 55th monsoon at Viramgam, he came to Ahmedabad from 1958 and stayed here continuously for next 16 monsoons. Here he did some writing on scriptures. He had acquired knowledge of 16 languages in addition to the study of Grammar, Logic (Nyaya), Darshan and Literature. He spent his monsoons in many regions of India and many non-Jains also took advantage of his vast knowledge. Accepting requests from several devotees from all over India, he started the work of translating 32 scriptures and stayed continuously at Ahmedabad to complete this work without interruptions. He at last completed this task by 16 years' hard labor. 27 scriptures are laid before the people duly printed in four languages and many people have read them with interest. His translation was multi-faced and this was the very first effort in the history of Jain literature. The original part of the scripture was put up first in the form of prose and poetry and then after detailed comments and hard meanings. After that there were translations in Hindi and Gujarati. Such exceptional arrangement was unique in the creation of Jain literature. The Jain community will never be free from the obligation of Shri Ghasilalji because it only because of his pains that every Jain is able to read Jain scriptures in Gujarati and Hindi. The Sthanakvasi Jain community is particularly obliged in Shri Ghasilalji.
Awards and Honors:
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