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JAINA GAZETTE.
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Inaugurated by such able hands and started on such sound lines, it was expected that the Association would rise above the general crowd of Associations and Conferences, which do no more work than passing a few stereotyped resolutions, which, though repeated every year, produce little effect either on the members or on the general public. Moreover, since the members of the Association were chiefly students, young men who are on their way to enter life from whom every country and every community expect so much, and on whose exertions and zealous enthusiasm all the progress of a nation depends, it was very desirable that the word of the Association be carried on such lines as will train the members in organised work, give them an idea of their duty to the community to which they belong and to the country they inhabit, instil into them the spirit of reform, purge their valuable soul of the very harmful superstitions that are SO prevalent in our midst, elevate their thoughts and in fact help them in every possible way to become good citizens and devote patriots. An Association cannot possibly be expected to compel its members to do this or that; nor is such compulsion ever desirable, for it would kill the sense of independence and responsibility which, though apparently opposed to each other, must go hand in hand with the generat culture. What an Association can do to the highest benefit— and particularly what this student-Association could be expected to achieve-seems to be that it should be able to appeal to the hearts of its members, that it should help them to form correct opinions and persuade them with reason to give up what they erroneously believed to be right, that it should teach them how their infinite powers can be best utilised by healthy co-operation, that when they go out into the world, the Association should not allow them to go as mere burdens on their country who would become a heavy drawback in the progress of the nation-nor even as indifferent persons who do not care whether their country men starve or rule, whether their community is progressing or not, but a's enthusiastic young men believing most strongly in the future Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
1914.]
