Jain Center Los Angeles CA 2008 09 Pratishta Souvenior

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

Page 111

The Past, Present, and Future of
Jain Center of Southern California...
Shumoni mehta
"Your temple, the one they are building, it is the most beautiful place I have seen!" This is what I heard every Monday during my senior year from my high school friend. As she headed to her Christian church every weekend, my friend drove down Commonwealth Avenue and passed our derasar on her ride. Each week she was more and more amazed by the progressing renovation and the building of the intricate exterior which she witnessed. And thus, she felt the need to remind me that I am "so lucky to have such a beautiful place in which to pray." Reflecting on my friend's statement, I realize that she could not have been more right.
Jai Jinendra
The Jain Center of Southern California has been a part of my life since before I can even remember. I began attending Pathshala classes at the age of seven and continued for more than ten years. In those ten years, I learned more than just the meaning of Jainism and the Gujarati language, but also learned numerous life lessons that have and will stay with me forever.
In many ways, the weekly progress my friend witnessed from the outside was a hastened glimpse (and only a surface view) of the real progress that had been taking place within the derasar. Each new step in the construction was one of the many lessons I learned at the Jain Center, the multiple entrances - anekantvad (the theory of multiplicity); the cement and wooden pillars - "Samyagdarshanjnancharitrani Mokshmargah" (right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct); the walls and panels - nav tatva (the nine reals); the hand-carvings laced on the walls - stutis (prayers); the halls and classrooms - yatidharma (the ten supreme virtues); the marble staircase - gunasthanaks (the fourteen stages of spiritual development); the ceiling lights - chovis tirthankars (the twenty-four gods). As the derasar was carefully being constructed, so were the minds of young Jains like me.
After a few years, I expanded my horizons by joining the ICYC Youth Committee. I began taking an active role and, along with the committee, helped plan social events for ICSC. In holding a leadership role and practicing teamwork, I grew as a person. And now, with ICSC, we, as a Jain community, grow together. As we continue to expand and construct stronger grounds, I know we are laying the foundation for the present and for future generations, as ISCS did for me in the past. I could not be more grateful for everything and everyone who has made my experience at ICSC so valuable. Now, when I climb the steps in derasar to do darshan, I do realize that I... we are so lucky to have such a beautiful place in which to pray.
Shumoni Mehta is a sophomore at University of California, Berkeley.
When I pray in Derasar, I ask Bhagwan for the right knowledge, not for A's on my tests.
Yatin Shah, 14