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A Feeling to Share
At the same time as Gurudev had been uniting his fellow countrymen as one human family, a dream to promote mutual understanding among the religions of the world was birthed in America. Mrs. Virginia Prout shared her idea with Mrs. Judith Hollister, who then shared it with such leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt, Prime Minister Nehru, Pope John XXIII, Dr. Radhakrishnan, and Sir Zafrulla Khan. Eventually, representatives from sixty-six different nations and from all of the world's religions supported what became a non-profit educational corporation called The Temple of Understanding. With the pur-pose of achieving "universal recognition of the underlying Oneness of the Family of Man" and creating a “Spiritual United Nations," the Temple enthusiasts sponsored dialogues, publications, exhibits, and Spiritual Summit Conferences, the first of which was held in 1968 in Calcutta.
Nearly eighty religious leaders, scholars, and students came together to apply spiritual insights toward building a more open global-minded society in which war, poverty, prejudice, and unrest would diminish and vanish. Through Shri B. K. Birla and Shrimati Sarla Birla, Chairman of the International Committee, Gurudev became known to the Conference organizers. His great stature among Indians of all faiths, his non-sectarian ecumenical approach made him their choice to represent Jainism. But when the invitation came to him, he was unable to accept.
He sent his disciple, Kumari Vatsala Amin, who was a lawyer, to represent him and to read one of his discourses. Miss Amin's dynamic presentation inspired many of the delegates there to know more of Jain philosophy and practice. One of them, Thomas Merton, highly respected spiritual leader, writer, and monk of the Catholic faith, wrote of Vatsala in his Asian Journal:
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