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JAINA CONVENTION 2017
Pathshala: The Next Generation
of American Jains
By Pravin K. Shah
Jain Center of NJ Franklin Twp
Like any immigrant community, we Jain Americans are fighting to sustain our identity and taking great pains to ensure that the next generation continue the tradition. In India, Jain young people most often live in religiously saturated environments, allowing them to acquire through daily life, knowledge of Jain religion from the monks, temples, texts, and people that surround them. The environment for American Jains, by comparison, is religiously dilute. Here Jains are spread too thinly to offer young people with the Jain environment necessary to sustain such education. In addition, the assurance of accessible resources is replaced by the formidable barriers of language and distance. Jain communities nationwide have responded to this dilemma with deliberate, structured, pathshala programs. The word pathshala, which literally means "learning place," is traditionally used to describe the religious classes, conducted by local gurus, that make up the only formal Jain education in India. These classes primarily consist of sutra and mantra memorization. The American pathshala, however, is an exciting reincarnation of this age-old institution. The Education Committee of the Federation of JAINA whose main function is to prepare and publish non-sectarian Jain Educational material for children, youth, and young Jain professionals raised in North American cultural environment.
Jain Center of NJ Franklin Twp
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