Gommateshvara Commemoration Volume

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

Page 4

ASĪRVACANA
It is gratifying to note that the Mahāmastakābhişeka Celebration Committee is publishing the Gommatesvara Commemoration Volume on the occasion of the Mahamastakabhişeka of Bhagavān Bahubali of Sravaqabe!goļa in February 1981. Eminent scholars of Jainism and Indology have contributed learned articles for the volume.
Jainism is a Sramaņic religion which prevailed in India, as Dr. Radhakrishnan says, much before Pārsvanātha and Vardhamāna, the last two Tirthankaras. Jainism has contributed to world culture in its emphasis on ahinsa, anekānta and aparigraha. Ahimsā is the universal religion which has contributed to the enhancement of the unifying force of mankind.
world will dhamāna. India, as D.
Bhagavān Bahubali was the embodiment of ahimsa (non-hurting), tyāga (self-denial) and tapas (penance). Bābubali was called Gommata, the beautiful. He lived the life of royal splendour with dignity and self-respect. He renounced everything worldly and practised penance. In Bahubali we find the crystallisation of the qualities of self-sacrifice and human dignity directed towards the realisation of the perfect in man. His enobling influence on mankind needs to be emphasised in modern society which is beset with anti-values.
We are glad that the efforts in this direction have been made in presenting the many-faceted personality of Bahubali in the articles of the learned scholars in this volume.
We wish that in the years to come the humanisation of the brute and the divinisation of man will be possible by such efforts.
Elācārya Munibri Vidyānandaji
Sravanabe!go!a
1-1-1981