Jain Center Los Angeles CA 1998 07 10th Anniversary of Jain Bhavan

Author(s): Jain Center So CA Los Angeles
Publisher: USA Jain Center Southern California

Page 97

Maintaining And Representing Our Religious And Cultural Identity As Jains In North America by Chandrakant J. Parekh
The celebration of the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of the Jain Center of Southern California in 1998 is a fitting tribute and a major testament to the challenge of Maintaining And Representing Our Religious And Cultural Identity As Jains In North America. This topic is also the subject of the 1998 JAINA National Essay Competition. Both of these events are of great significance to me. Ten years ago, I had the privilege of serving as a Vice President in the Executive Committee led by Dr. Manibhai Mehta which oversaw the planning, construction and inauguration of the Jain Center. Ten years later, I have the honor of serving as one of the three judges, with Dr. Bruce Costain (Balbhadra) from Toronto, Canada and Dr. Dilip Shah from Oakbrook, Illinois, to review 123 essays submitted by the Jain youths from all over the United States and Canada.
Our Jain Center was the first custom designed facility in North America to meet the religious, cultural and social needs of a Jain community. For the past 10 years, our Jain Center has been a focal point for religious, educational, cultural, community service, and outreach activities. These activities and the size of our community have increased steadily, and we now need to re-plan our facilities to fulfill the demands of our expanded community. Once again, I have the privilege of serving as a member of the Jain Center Building Committee and our goal is to integrate and develop the existing Jain Bhavan and the adjoining properties into a multi-use Jain Bhavan Complex. The facilities being planned will include a religious complex with an enlarged Derasar and Gyan Mandir (JAINA National Library), a cultural complex with a large meeting hall, the wooden replica of the Palitana temple, a museum and underground parking, and an Atma Sadhana Kendra complex for Swadhaya and Pathshala activities. These amenities will once again help us to reinforce our commitment to represent and preserve our religious and cultural identity well into the future,
As mentioned earlier, 123 youths ranging in age from 5 to 19 years rose to the challenge of expressing their ideas and commitments in an essay competition on the topic of Maintaining And Representing Our Religious And Cultural Identity As Jains In North America. As a testimonial to the success of our Pathshala program, the bulk of the essays, a total of 101 entries, were submitted from the Jain Center of Southern California. The essays were categorized under four age groups (5-10 years, 11-14 years, 15-18 years, and 19 year and above), and were assessed for richness of content, clearness of presentation, quality of language, and details of the personal practice and a personal plan. While the first, second, and third place winners will be recognized in each of the four age categories, in my estimation all of the 123 participants are winners. These youths candidly expressed their thoughts and shared their feelings about being a Jain (a great sense of pride and joy), their understanding of the Jain religion (remarkably good and detailed knowledge), their personal practice (strong ethics and awareness about Ahimsa and vegetarianism), and their personal plan (unwavering commitment to uphold and promote the Jain principles). Having had the privilege of reviewing all these essays, I feel very confident that the future of Jainism in North America is well assured into the next millennium.