Book Title: Comtemporary Jain Legends
Author(s): Atmanandji Maharaj
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

Previous | Next

Page 113
________________ The new Upashraya (religious school) at Limbdi was not the main place of his shelter. He would take any periodical that was available and read it. He would recite whatever prayers were at his memory. He would hear new things from others and commit it to memory wherever it was possible. His loneliness was, thus, a bit easy. He was keeping himself in company with any mendicant, who was spending his monsoon at Limbdi and committed to memory several prayers, hymns and stanzas on spiritual subjects under his guidance. He came in contact with Deepchandji Maharaj in 1909 and he learnt many Jain chapters from him in which Dravyanuyog and Ganitanuyog of Jainism were described briefly in Gujarati. He committed to memory many hymns like Dash Vaikalik, Uttaradhyayan, SootraKrutang, Bhaktamar Stotra, Kalyan Mandir Stotra etc. The sweetness of Sanskrit language impressed him very much. When he knew that there is vast literature in Sanskrit and many commentaries on Jain Agams are also in Sanskrit, he was eager to study Sanskrit and he committed to memory everything of Sanskrit which he could do with the help of others even tough he may of may not have understood it. His younger brother Chhotalal, two other friends, Popatlal and his brother Gulabchand helped him as his readers so that Sukhlalji may commit to memory by hearing them in Sanskrit. His study and company of several saints, mendicants, disciples, followers; ardent Shravakas, nuns, renunciate, etc only were his activities from 1898 to 1903. He was betrothed for marriage when e was young but this was cancelled by the parents of the when Sukhlalji turned blind and thus there was no family life for Sukhlalji. Towards Kashi-Benaras: In 1903-04, Sukhlalji came to know that Acharya Vijay Dharm Sooriji had established YashoVijaya Jain Pathshala- a school for religious studies- at Kashi and when Sukhlalji took admission to that Pathshala, there were six mendicants and 25 Shravak-students. There was very nice accommodation to stay and board. The friends-group of Sukhlalji included Vijayendra Soori, Nyaya Vijayaji, JayantVijayaji, Pandit Hargovinddas, Pandit Bechardas etc. Sukhlalji was older than other students were and hence he was well respected at the Pathshala. There were famous Pandits like Ambadutta Shastri and Harnarayan Tiwari to teach these students. For the first two years, Sukhlalji studied and thought very much. After this, he started teaching new students with himself studying further in Jainism. Thus, Sukhlalji completed his study in Grammar, Poetics, Logic, Linguistics, and word-formation during the four years from 1904 to 1908. He specially helped the weak students. He committed to memory everything he could. He, thus, memorized 18,000 stanzas and completed BruhadVritti of Siddhaim Vyakaran from 1960 to 1963. He went to a pilgrimage to Samet Shikharji and Palitana and gained much knowledge in Jainism. He passed the monsoon of 1909 in the company of Acharya VijayVallabh Soori at Palanpur. From here he went to Abu-Delwada and returned to Kashi. He then decided to appear at the examination of Sampoorna Nyaya Madhyama of the Queen's college in 1910. Since there was no suitable teacher for him, he was examined orally. Many highly learned and expert personalities questioned him extensively and Sukhlalji answered them. Sukhlalji was declared successful in first class and he also came in personal contacts of these learned personalities. This happened to of much use to him in his further life. He appeared in the first part of the examination for the degree of Acharya in Nyaya and also Madhyama examination at Patna. He completed all the three parts of the examination for the degree of Acharya upto 1913. He studied the most difficult books on Nyaya. He could easily understand the Khandan-Khand-Khadya of Shree Harsh, AdvaitSiddhi of Shri Madhusudan Saraswati and Chitsukhi of Chit Swaroopacharya which considered to be most complicated and difficult books on the subject. After satisfactory progress in study, Sukhlalji left Kashi. He, then, caught Mooni PunyaVijayaji, Pandit Hirachand, Pandit Bhagwandas, Acharya LalitVijayaji, Acharya JinVijayaji, Shriman HansVijayaji 113

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183