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Poetical Biography of Śri Vijayadharma Sūri
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His Personality
And this is no wonder. For Vijaya Dharma Sūri was not only an ideal Jaina Sādhu, but his was a personality of eminence and rare attractiveness. His was a great and liberal mind, which made him just in the appreciation of things good and noble in other sects and religions. His was a warm heart, which made him mild towards poor infatuated fellow-creatures, whom he loved as a father does his own erring children. His was a firm soul, which made him forbearing even towards his adversaries. His was the quick intuition of a genius, who, ages before, knows the demands of coming generations, and his was a sound common sense, which knows the needs and grievances of the present hour, and finds means to redress them. Renowned was he as a writer, a scholar, an orator, and a social reformer.
Literary Activity
Even now, his co-religionists and country-men delight in numerous essays and other writings from his pen, which deal with different aspects of Jaina Religion, and which, learned and devotional at the same time, resulted from a deep study of the Sacred Writings as well as post-canonical Jaina Literature, and which, partly, represent what were originally sermons, recast in book-form. The titles of his chief volumes are : Jaina Tattva Digdarśana ( which originally had been read before the Convention of Religions in India on the 9th April 1909, written in Hindi ), Jaina Tattvajñāna ( in Saṁskṛta ), Indriya Parājaya Digdarśana ( in Gujarati, a Hindi as well as a Marathi translation having appeared later ), Jaina Šikṣā Digdarśana ( in Gujarati, translated into Hindi ), Brahmacarya Digdarśana ( in Hindi, translated into Hindi and Marathi ) Puruśārtha Digdarśana ( in Gujarati ), Ahimsā Digdarśana ( Hindi ) Ātma Unnati Digdarśana ( Gujarati ), Dharma Deśană. All these different works ( the resp. years of the first publication of which I could not ascertain ) appeared in the Series ‘Yaśovijaya Jaina Granthamālā' in Bhavnagar. The last-named publication, the
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