Jain Journal 1976 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 43

Correspondence
Sir, I have just received the July (Vol. XI No. 1) issue of the Quarterly and read Sri B. M. Singhi's article on Muni Jinvijayji. The article is full of information and the present younger generation has I am no knowledge of that Great Man. Hence giving my reminiscences.
When Muni Jinvijayji was in Poona I was a student in Poona Engineering College. In the Digambar Jain Boarding House we reading Tattvrtha Sutra.
were
Many of us who were attached to Mill and Spencer's way of thinking did not see an eye to eye with our sastras and some had become Atheists and I was one of them. I therefore decided to have an interview with Jinvijayji who was residing in the Svetambar Jain Boarding. While I received only rebuke from Jain Digambar monks, he gave me a patient hearing. I owe him a debt of gratitude as this interview turned me from Atheism to Theism. I met him many times afterwards and have been benefited by his advise.
In 1940 or so he presided over South Maharashtra Jain Conference (a Digambar body presided by Divan Bahadur Lathe, Ex-Finance Minister of Bombay). After Lathe's demise I had the honour to be the head of that body and I had kept up the non-secterian tone as propounded by Jinvijayji. In my heart of hearts I carry the image of the Great Muni Sri as my spiritual Guru.
Sept. 3, 1976
Yours etc., Buddhaveerananda (former M. H. Shah) Nirvanashram, Shravanabelagola