Comtemporary Jain Legends

Author(s): Atmanandji Maharaj
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

Page 59

performances and advised the youth to learn hard and work for society. He advised the elders for pilgrimage, service for Jain temples, service to saints and mendicants, charitable activities etc.
Unpreferable practices in society: Payment of money at the marriage for the bride or bridegroom, compulsory dinner party on completion of the vows of Atthai etc. wearing unholy cloths of silk, use of saffron in temples, soups made up of violence, use of things made from leather, girls not to be educated much and other ungraceful practices were prevailing in his days and he preached to avoid them outright by loving words and people honored his advice with respects.
Conclusion: It is difficult to understand the characters of great men. Shri Vijay Vallabh Sooriji had liberal views as broad as sea. He was not merely a Jain saint but a great saint of the whole of India. He was invested with the national attitude of respecting all the religions equally. He interpreted Dharm-religion for the good of all and everybody. He took out religion from short and narrow considerations like going daily to temple, do certain rites and then in practical life adopt all sorts of bad and good practices to earn money. We can know him as a personality of the age or of the century. The present prosperity and stability of Jain community owes very much to such saints and Acharyas who could see centuries and ages ahead of their time.