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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
that case enormous sums of money, which, at present, are only spent for the erection and restoration of temples, or, in other ways, for the direct service of the idol, would become available for educational and charitable purposes. Though many communities still cling to the old definition, sanctified by tradition, still there are a good number of towns and villages where the reasonable reform suggested by Vijaya Dharma Sūri, has been carried through, and their number will, of course, increase in the measure in which education and enlightenment of the masses will progress.
Reforming Monastic Customs
Another courageous attack against the gaint 'tradition' Vijaya Dharma Sūri had undertaken, when, at the age of nineteen, he had for the first time re-entered his native place Mahuvā, in the garb of a monk. It had come to be an established custom that a Jaina monk, whenever he preached, could do so only in a so called Upāśraya, i.e., Jaina assembly hall, and only sitting in the prescribed posture, the ‘Patiyu' behind him, on his 'Pat', with the “Mukhavastrikā' in one, and the manuscript in the other hand. Thus the public which he addressed, consisted of course, almost completely of Jaina laymen and laywomen. Vijaya Dharma Sūri, however, not content with such an audience, found that it were not his laymen who were so much in need of his teaching, but, before all, those Non-Jainas, amongst whom the gospel of non-violence had not yet been carried. Imitating the noble example of Lord Mahāvīra, he found that it was his duty as a religious teacher to speak before all and everybody who needed enlightenment. Thus, making light of old usage, he began to deliver lectures and public addresses in all kinds of meetings, began to preach in all kinds of public places, in the very streets and bazaars, and sometimes even, standing up-right, under the open sky, before crowds in which all creeds and castes were represented. Thus he created himself a powerful expedient for carrying the Jaina tenets amongst people who had never heard the name of a Tīrtharkara before. And this very reasonable innovation
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