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and (like Buddhism) must reach out to the larger community. If people do not come to the temple, the temple must go out to the people. Each family then becomes an outpost of the temple, even within the forest of skyscrapers! I recall, it was Dr. Sulekh Jain who, at our first encounter, virtually conscripted me to deliver a speech at Morristown (near Detroit), where I called for the Jain community to build temples not just of bricks but of brains, which then sparked Sulekhji and others to found JAFNA (Jain Academic Foundation of North America). That man's initial compassion for me accounts for all of my involvement in the Jain community, though I am not a Jain.
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The bottom line is that building temples is significant to the extent that the builders have their eyes on the Lord and not on a cheering public. Nothing must come in the way of that beatific vision. The magnificent Ranakpur temple enshrines this truth, for though it is erected of 1,444 pillars, not a single pillar obstructs the view of the Lord from any nook or corner!
The Crawford family has long roots in India, going back to 1761, with Henry Crawford serving as governor under Lord Hastings. Born in Jhansi and educated in the Bombay Scottish Orphanage, Mahim, and Serampore University, West Bengal, Cromwell emigrated to the U.S. where he earned a Th.D. from The Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley. He currently teaches at the University of Hawaii and publishes in the area of Indian medical ethics.
Sculpted lancers /rtlar
Delwara Jain Temple, Mt. Abu
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