Jain Digest 1993 07

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 21

a grand procession (Rath Yatra) was attended by over 3,000 people from this country and abroad (Editor's note: Perhaps over 5,000).
The Jain temple was formally inaugurated last year. The society purchased 15 acres of land five years ago and has spent nearly $3 million to build the temple and auditorium. There are 2,500 followers of the Jain religion in metropolitan Chicago.
Note:
Toronto Pratishtha will be covered in the November issue.
From Here? - from page 1
immigration, travel, science and technology, religions that were previously confined within India's borders have now become global religions in the past 50 years at a scale not conceived before. Jainism is one such religion. Questions we must ask are: Are we Jains ready to join the committee of other major world religions?; Are we going to welcome the year 2000?; Do we Jains have any vision, roadmap or agenda for the future?.
I will not even attempt to answer these questions here or layout an agenda. In fact, I do not even have the capability to do so. This requires serious thinking and debate. In this issue of the Jain Digest, two such feedbacks are provided.
One is a letter to the editor by a very well respected and dynamic leader of Jains - Dr. Natubhai Shah from Leicester, U.K. The other is a compilation of feedback given by 40 or so JAINA directors and Jain center presidents who spoke at the JAINA Board of Directors meeting at the 7th JAINA Convention in Pittsburgh. To these observations, I humbly add the following:
(1) Let us work together and pool our resources. Let us not compete, duplicate or waste our re
Jain Digest
sources;
(2) Jainism is now a global religion. Let us walk our talk. Let us think and act globally. Let us disband the closed society attitude of our Jain groups;
(3) To be a global religion, let us strengthen national and international Jain organizations. My dream is that soon we have to move beyond the national organizations. Like other major world religions, we need to seriously think of an international organization like "World Council of Jains" or "World Federation of Jain Association" with a central secretariat;
(4) Like the JAINA convention, let us work towards an international Jain convention once every two years; (5) We should publish an international directory of Jains living outside India and also of Jain organizations in India as well as overseas;
(6) To communicate,
we need a news paper, e.g. Jain Times, published monthly or weekly;
(7) We must use modern technologies (TV, video, radio, etc.) to spread the message of Ahimsa (nonviolence);
To be a global religion, let us strengthen national and international Jain organizations. My dream is that soon we have to move beyond the national organizations.
(8) We should plan to work on a Jain encyclopedia and a comprehensive history of Jains and their contributions in India, North America, Europe, East Africa and other countries;
(9) We must start interfaith dialogue with other world religions and find common grounds to cooperate and work together with groups, organizations and individuals that have respect for life, animals and the environment.
With us individually, there should be a searching, a reaching, a grasping, or a quizzical attitude, a
questioning of society and a questioning of ourselves.
The communities and organizations that find a way to engage every mind, harness every volt of passionate energy, break every artificial barrier between people will be communities that will survive in the 1990's and beyond and we Jains must be that community.
The new leadership of JAINA that was elected at the convention in Pittsburgh is fully aware of these challenges and is capable and ready to serve the Jain community; to lead us unto the 21st century. Let us provide full support and cooperation.
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I have been very fortunate that you, during the last eight years (four years as secretary and since 1989 as president of JAINA), gave me your trust, confidence, cooperation,
encouragement and an opportunity
to serve the Jain community. It was once in a lifetime opportunity for me. Collectively, we made some progress. I thank you all, members of the executive committees, JAINA Board of Directors, presidents of all Jain Centers and Jain Sanghs for being part of this fun. Jai Jinendra
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