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卐骟卐骟 JAIN CENTER OF AMERICA PARYUSHAN 1984 94 弱卐卐 55
2.
Rajni Gandhi
About seventeen years have passed since the Jain Center of America was founded and three and a half years since the Temple building was purchased. But this period is very short, like the first three days of a life from birth in a person's life, who has to learn and achieve a lot of things.
Our present activities consist of once a month Snatra Puja on Sunday, once a month Parsvanath Puja, Bhakti, and Bhavna every Friday at 8:30 p.m., and, of course, every day you can come to the Temple for Darshan. Major celebrations include Mahavir Jayanti, Diwali (Mahavira Nirvana), Paryushana, and at least three big Swamivatsalya. Most of these programs are sponsored by one of you and we are very proud for your generous support. Jains in New York City have increased tenfold in the past ten years. In spite of this, we have very few Life Members. Our goal is to have every Jain family a Life Member. I urge everyone to try and make some commitments that they will enlist three, four, or five new Life Members. Please give your wholehearted support in this respect. To make it more convenient we are stretching the life membership payment to three yearly installments rather than paying it in one year. Remember, a Life Membership donation is tax deductible. We want to form a strong Jain society. The more members we have, the faster we will grow and have a strong society.
In this fast-moving world, everyone is too busy and does not get time to think about religion and one's soul. Everyone knows this Stavan: Hu Tane Bhaju Chhu Raviware Baki Kyan Chhe Samay Prabhu Mare. By the time we realize it, it is too late to do anything for ourselves, family members, and children. Many of us have a habit of not leaving the house before praying, but we do not always see whether or not our children follow that practice. "The family that prays together stays together." Only through our religion will we be able to maintain our culture and customs, and we will be able to pass them on to our children.
I suggest to all my fellow members to make a habit of visiting the Temple at least once a week with all the family members. This can be done whenever you are going to a social function, shopping, or otherwise. This will give us a chance to pray together in the nice and peaceful Temple environment.
The community here has adopted one religion as Jain and has not thought about Swetamber, Digamber, or Sthanakvasi. To further strengthen that idea we plan to perform a monthly Pooja to incorporate everyone's vidhis. So I urge you to give your support in balancing the vidhis. We have come across this discussion many times. Let us start doing some concrete work. In the next generation there should be only one religion "Jain".
Glancing through this book you will see in the Donor's List a great number of our Jain brothers and sisters whose generous donations made this Tirthasthan a living reality. We are planning to have Shikharbandhi Mandir-that is our goal. This will be accomplished if all of us donate generously. We are collecting donations and pledges which will enable us to plan the future of our Temple. With a strength of 1000 plus Jain family, we should think bigger and better for the next generation's benefits. Only a thousand dollar donation by each family a year, and we can have more than $3 million in a short three-year period. With plenty of land we can have a Temple, Dharmsala, religious school, and other socio-religious activities. Our community does not have to worry about small things like dangers to their cars, lack of parking spaces, or big things like promoting religious education or a hall for weddings and other social functions. Remember, divided we are all losers. The easiest thing this country gives is money, so morally and religiously donate your resources. Also, whenever social occasions are celebrated such as birthdays, weddings, etc., remember your Temple. After all, little, little things add up to a lot.
Some of our dream projects that I want to share with you are:
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JAIN CENTER OF AMERICA
PRESENT AND FUTURE
Directory of Jains: Boston group did a remarkable job a few years ago by publishing a Jain directory. We would like to publish a similar directory on a smaller scale with only New York area Jain families. With a recent compilation of all addresses, this dream will become a reality in the near future with your less-than-ten minutes of time donation to fill out and mail the survey form.
Jain Pathsala: We all, at different ages, worry about different things. When our kids are in teens we worry about education; when they are in twenties we worry about marriage and so on. We must bring our children together at an early age. Let us have a small beginning by dedicating every Sunday morning for this worthy education. Volunteers must come forward who have religious and education background. We will provide the necessary resources.
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Yoga and Meditation Classes: Learning process never ends. Running water never smells. Education is not for our children only. We must shape up ourselves too. Our body will rust too. While our children are attending religious school we should do our Sunday yoga and meditation.
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