Conference on World Religions 1994 07 NY Queens

Author(s): Council for The Conference on World Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

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eventually abolishing the poll-tax in place of a fixed payment of Rs 15,000 per year to the ruler for looking after the safety of the pilgrims and the holy place.
In 1891 Mr. Boddam, an English man set up a factory for
slaughtering pigs and making tallow out of them at Mt. Sametshikhar, another holy place of Jain pilgrimage near Calcutta, Bihar, India. Shri Virchand Gandhi went all the way to Calcutta to stop the killing of pigs at the holy place. He stayed there for six months, learned Bengali, prepared his case against the factory, and ultimately got this verdict issued: "Sametshikhar is a place of Jain pilgrimage and nobody else has any right to interfere there." He got the factory to close.
Shri Virchand Gandhi was a great social reformist at a very young age. He had fought against social evils and had succeeded in eradicating some. When his father died in 1890, he did not allow the primitive practices of wailing and breast-beating during mourning.
Shri Virchand Gandhi sailed to the U.S.A. along with Swami Vivekanand to attend the Partiament of World Religion Conference in 1893. He stayed in the U.S.A. for about two years after the conference and lectured in cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York, and Washington. He also visited England, France, Germany and other places in Europe. In foreign countries he wore a long and loose kurta, a white shawl on his shoulder, a golden bordered Kathiwadi turban on his head, and country shoes. This external appearance bore the imprint of India. He delivered more than 535 lectures on Jainism, Yoga, Indian systems of philosophy, Indian culture, occultism, and spiritualism. He qualified as a Barrister in London at one of the Inns of the Court but did not use his qualification for monetary gain.
Virchand Gandhi talked about the doctrines of Jainism in such a coherent manner that some newspapers published the text of his lecture in full. He had a most effective way of handling the otherwise difficult terminology of Jainism. He had an extraordinary ability to clarify his statements in a consistent and logical manner. At the conference, he made a brief but striking presentation on the fundamentals of the Jain religion. He expounded the Jain religion in its main aspects namely: Jain philosophy, Jain way of life, and Jain code of conduct.
Another special characteristic of Shri Virchand Gandhi's lectures on the Jain religion was that they did not deal in criticism of other religions. Free from sectarian preferences and prejudices, his impartial ideology is an apt expression of the Jain who practices non-violence (Ahimsa) in life and multiplicity views (Anekanta) in thoughts. His discourses convinced the elite of America of the fact that the Jain religion has an authentic and rational religious tradition. speeches received extensive publications in several leading newspapers.
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