ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 60

communication is established between the giver and the receiver. It is a mutually satisfying experience. It is beneficial to the helper as to the receiver. It is, to use a modern cliché, a win-win situation. Negative thoughts and actions are dispelled. It is not for nothing that Mother Teresa was called the apostle of kindness and Calcutta (or now Kolkota) is named the City of Joy. This is the most effective method of bringing diverse individuals and groups together. Here, instead of indifference there is a concern. Hatred, if any, is replaced by harmony. And sadness is substituted with joy. This is the real alchemy of Ahimsa. If this idea is extended to the individuals of other faiths or countries, results are increasingly satisfying. Recently a free heart surgery of a resource-less girls from Pakistan in a well-known hospital in Bangalore in India generated an unusual goodwill between the peoples of India and Pakistan, generally not considered to be the best of the friends. Many of the diplomatic moves could not match it.
Incidentally despite the efforts of some Jaina scholars and acāryas beset with their own sectarian thinking, to deprive Ahimsā of its true positive meaning, Jainas in India and abroad do charity on a large scale. In India few can match them. They run several schools, hospitals orphanages, food and water distribution centers, animal sanctuaries etc. It is a case of heart getting the better of sterile and inhuman concepts, wrongly propounded by some of the subsects of Jainas.
One example of such compassion action is Bhagavān Mahāvīra Viklānga Sahāyatā Samiti (BMVSS), which was set up in 1975 to provide artificial limbs/calipers others aid and appliances to the handicapped. It is my privilege to be is founder and now its chief patron. BMVSS provides free artificial limbs to the amputees, calipers to the polio patients and others aids and appliances to the handicapped. By now BMVSS has provided over 8,00, 000 aids and appliances totally free of charge in last 30 years. It is the largest limb / caliper fitting organization in the world. For example in the financial years 2004-2005 BMVSS fitted over 17,000 handicapped with artificial limbs in a year. 90% of the patients of BMVSS are below the poverty line. Beneficiaries belong to different faiths and regions. They speak of Mahāvīra as the lord of compassion. BMVSS also held camps in 18 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where the impact is equally complimentary. For example Dawn, the leading newspaper of Pakistan and generally a critic of India, in its issue of 19th January 2002 said this for our third on-the-spot limb fitment camp at Kabul:
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