________________
Jai Jinendra!
The Vision
Jain Society of Greater Detroit
Jain Society of Greater Detroit was founded based on the dreams of the first generation of immigrants landed in this country. On the occasion of the 38th anniversary of our society, Jain Society of Greater Detroit would like to recognize the pioneers who had the foresight and wisdom to create this organization. Starting with a nucleus of only 50 families in 1975, the society has now grown to over 540 families who are engaged in all aspects of practicing the Jain religion.
Since 1975, membership and many activities "children and adults study class, picnic, various Pujas, celebration of Paryushan Parv and Parna" grew in the society. With this growth, members had a dream of building a Jain temple in the metropolitan area. To begin to turn the dream in to a reality, centrally located land in Farmington Hills was purchased in 1989, "Bhoomi poojan" was performed in 1991, "Shila Ropan" was performed in 1992, design was completed and the construction of the Temple began in 1993. The Temple was designed based on concepts such as "the whole Sangh being able to sit together and participate in various religious activities, replicating Jain Temple architectural details such as the carved marble Shikhar & Niches, Ghabara, Bhumti and dome to give a glimpse to future generations of beautiful Temples in India and encourage them to visit and explore the land of their fore fathers and Jain religion". Our vision of building the temple in a central location, designing the temple to serve the needs of a growing membership and purchasing the adjacent land for future expansion will serve the members well in to the next millennium.
Thirty-Eight years of member's collective dreams became a reality when we completed the construction of a beautiful temple and had the historic Pratishtha Mahotsav ceremony during the July 4th weekend
of 1998. Many of us worked tirelessly for over 10 years to build this magnificent temple. Upon entering the temple on various occasions many of us had tears of joy in our eyes. The temple is going to ensure the continuity of Jainism in this country for many generations to come. The activities at the Temple are blossoming, from daily pujas to Snatra puja every Sunday, the regular Swadhyay of Sundays and Wednesday, bimonthly study classes, JOY related activities, etc.
A beautiful, peaceful, serene temple... Our Jain Temple - A place to worship, meditate, break away from bondage of materialistic life, achieve inner peace within ourselves, meet friends and a place where we are trying to replicate our memories of the past. We are determined to make it a better place, a place which will be worthy of calling a Tirth, where people from all over the world and especially from India will come to visit as a Tirth.
We envision the temple becoming an educational place, where classes are conducted for people of all ages to meet the challenges of lifelong learning. We are encouraging continuous learning, resulting in better human beings with happy soul and body. We are envisioning that everyday at least 100 people visits, perform religious rituals, pray, meditate and learn and thus becoming a living example of people who are practicing non-violence of mind, speech and action.
We envision educating every member, regardless of their spoken language, in Jain principles to elevate their knowledge, understanding and practice of Jainism. Swadhyay classes (teaching of Jain principals ) taught by our society members and regular visits by religious leaders will ensure that these activities will continue to expand in the future and will become a central part of our daily life. Also, We envision that all religious activities that are performed in the Society will be understood and
Jainism: The Global Impact
185
