JAINA Convention 1999 07 Philadelphia

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

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MY VISION OF JAINA FOR THE 21st CENTURY
JAINA's new mission statement, "From Cradle to Cremation -- JAINA is there" is a very sincere and serious commitment on the part of JAINA. As the only organization representing all 100,000 Jains in North America, challenges and opportunities lie ahead as we enter the 21st century. Preserving our culture, religion and heritage is the reason for JAINA's existence. As the first generation immigrants, we have special responsibilities to our children who were born and brought up on this continent. If we fail, our children would never know the beauty, joy and inner strength of our cultural and religious heritage. How can we accomplish this goal and fulfill our mission? Here is my vision of how JAINA can touch and make a difference in the life of every Jain person here.
JAIN CENSUS: To get the precise scope of our activities, JAINA should lead the effort to have correct count of all the Jains living in North America. We can not provide services to people we don't even know exist. Jain population in North America is said to be 100,000.
JAIN TEMPLE - In order to preserve our heritage, it is not just enough to have a Jain center, we need a physical structure, we need a pulpit, we need a temple, a sthanak and a pathshala in every Jain center. This temple could preferably be Jain or Hindu-Jain temple, and if neither is possible, have a GHAR-DERASAR (Temple in someone's house). This pulpit will provide not only our generation, but future generations also, a platform to preserve and promote Lord Mahavir's message of Ahimsa, Anekantvad, peace and Anukampa. JAINA should make sure that every Jain in North America has access to a prayer facility.
10th Biennial JAINA Convention
JAIN EDUCATION-There should be a pathshala attached to every Jain temple in order to instill the basic values of Jainism in our children. Unless this happens, they will be unable to transfer their heritage to their children. We have 285 Jain teachers and about a dozen scholars. We should take advantage of these scholars by organizing more and more teacher's workshops. We already had three of them at Raleigh, NC, Houston, TX and Chicago, IL, this year. We should have a teacher's convention once a year, rather than quadrennial convention as JAINA organized in May of '98 at Boston with the help of Boston Jain Center. We will present a uniform curriculum in the near future. These books are written in American English, mother tongue of our children. We should have a small library in every center and large regional library in all six regions of North America. Jaina should help organizations preparing Jain Encyclopedia in English.
Dr. Dhiraj H. Shah, President, JAINA
In order to help our children, to be true Jains there should be Jain preparatory school with dormitory in all six regions of North America. It should provide education from kindergarten to 12th standard as per local rules and regulations and at the same time, teach them Jain way of life, organize seminars on Non-violence, peace, vegetarianism, Anekantvad, compassion, etc. This will help those parents in particular, where there are not too many Jain families living.
No community can progress and be financially secure unless all the members of the community are well educated. JAINA, through JAINA Charitable Trust should offer at least 50 scholarships, minimum $1000 per year for at least four years of college and make sure, every Jain child has four years of college education. This will help the Jain families, who are not able to pay very high educational expenses of North American universities. Affiliate organizations like International Alumni Associations of Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya, should be asked to help on this project. One Jain chair in each of these regions of North America (minimum six at prestigious universities). This will expose our religion and its principles to thousands of others and in a way, will help us to preserve our identity.
Jain religion should be introduced, particularly in Parochial schools.
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