Jain Digest 2000 03 Vol 16 No 1

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

Page 17

WITH
JAISALMER TO PALITANA - YATRA 2000
By Dilip V. Shah, Philadelphia, Chairman,
JAINA Pilgrimage Committee A Tirthyatra is an opportunity to wash away sins of many with colorful ribbons for Yatris for easy identification. Dr. Jaya previous lives. In the footsteps of the spectacularly successful Shah from Cleveland gathered cartons of surplus medical supfirst ever JAINA pilgrimage of October 98 covering Samet Sikhar
plies (syringes, I.V. insertion kits etc.) from area hospitals for and nearby Tirths, JAINA executive committee created a Pil
donations to Orissa relief program and other hospitals. Gurudev grimage committee with the responsibility to organize at least
Chitrabhanu offered to come to the Bombay airport, at the be
Chitrabhanu offered to come one pilgrimage every year. This time, Dr. Dhiraj Shah sug
ginning of the Yatra for Manglik Vanchan. Navkar Sarvar Kendra
of Ahemdabad agreed to hold the medical camp in Palitana for preliminary itinerary JAINA YATRA 2000 - was distributed at Sadhus and Sadhvis. They also provided musical group for couple JAINA convention in Philadelphia.
of evenings for Bhakti Geets. Federation of Jain Social Groups in Several suggestions poured in resulting in the final Yatra Bombay requested their chapters in the cities we were going to plan which was presented in September. Very ambitious 2 week be to help us in any way they can. We got warm cooperation itinerary including temples of Kesariyaji, Ranakpur, Jodhpur, from every organization we contacted. Jaisalmer, Nakodaji, Mt. Abu, Ider, Mehsana, Patan, Sankheswara,
Day of departure January 18 was a beautiful day (We and Palitana was just the first agenda. This Yatra was also designed dodged a brutal snow storm on the east coast by a whisker). At the to cover the second type of Jain Tirths- our Sadhus and Sadhvis.
New York JFK terminal, many prominent members of New York Vandans and Vaiyavachcha of our monks were to be the integral
Sangh along with the newly elected President Dr. Sumtibhai Shah part of this Yatra. To achieve this goal, JAINA's Tirthodhdhar came to bid ceremonial send off. Arrival in Bombay was uneventcommittee's help was sought. Mr. Kirit Daftary, Chairman of the ful except the customs- We did not have sufficient paperwork for Tirthodhar committee readily agreed to join hands and during the medical supplies we were carrying in 7 huge cartons but in the October JAINA meeting at Siddhachalam, detailed plans for col
end, after 4 hours of negotiations, cooler heads prevailed and our laboration between the Pilgrimage committee and Tirthodhdhar precious ca
precious cargo was permitted to go through. During this time ancommittees were formulated. Kiritbhai proposed a medical camp other Air India flight from Chicago with 30 Yatris arrived and we in Palitana for Sadhus and Sadhvis for the two days we were plan- all proceeded to the domestic airport for flight to Udaipur. ning to be there. Our Yatris will have opportunity to perform a
Two of our Yatris, Dr Kantibhai Shah of Oklahoma and fundamental duty of Shravaks and Shravikas- serving our Sadhus
Dr. Anil Shah of Chicago, veterans of the Samet Sikhar Yatra agreed and Sadhvis.
once again to serve as medical officers for the Sangh. Dr. Anil The third aspect of this Yatra was visiting some Jain
Shah also served as one of the 6 group leaders. Other group leadinstitutions along the way to observe how Jainism is practised.
ers were - Kirit Daftary of TX, Madhukar Mehta of NC, Keerti To this end, we chose to visit a Pathshala, a Panjarapol, couple of
Shah of Chicago and Sevanti Shah of Phoenix, AZ. These leaders Poostak Bhandars, a research institute, a hospital run by a Jain and their wives worked hard to look after Yatris and assured smooth charitable trust, couple of ashrams, a Jain primary school and a functioning of the Sangh. Anil Shah of NJ was appointed as the Jain art museum. We also planned to meet with local Jain com- treasurer for our Sangh. He and his wife Hemlata disbursed donamunities through local chapters of Jain Social Groups. Thus be- tions to temples and other institutions in the name of JAINA from gan a stream of letters, faxes, phone calls and e-mails making the special Yatra fund created with voluntary contributions of Yatris. contacts in India and selection of travel agents, contractors for
From Bombay we had purchased sets of Poojapo (Traditional of land arrangements, hotels, dharmsalas etc. We entrusted Metro fering of Snatra Pooja Samagris, saffron, new pooja clothes etc. to Travel of Eslin, NJ to arrange air travel to and from India and
temples from visiting Sanghs as an effort to replace temple items flights within India. Meena Shah of Metro Travel also helped
used by Yatris). Chandrakant and Bhanuben Shah of NY took with details of the itinerary and she was so committed to the charge of distribution of these items at each temple. success of the yatra that she also traveled with us all the way to
On the morning of 20th January, we reached Udaipur Udaipur just to make sure that all the air travel went smoothly.
and settled in a country style hotel with cottages. This was desigAltogether 84 Yatris registered from many different states.
nated as a day of rest but instead, in the evening, Yatris took the Our youngest Yatri was 22 year old and few in their sixties and
opportunity to visit the City Palace, a lake and a temple of Shri up. We had a good mix of all the different sects fairly repre
Padmanabh who will be the first Tirthankara of the next Chauvisi. sented. Our Sangh looked like a true delegation of JAINA.
A special Yatra souvenir prepared by Diptiben Shah of Bombay Offers of help came from many sides. As they had done with information on all the Tirths, maps and Stavans was distriblast time, Jit and Manda Turakhia donated special Yatra 2000 badges uted to the Yatris and it proved to be very useful at every juncture
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