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1914.]
JAINA GAZETTE.
327
Shastra on the ground, on all eight points of the body, places the eight offerings before it, and recites the formulas of worship. The worship of the Shastra is a regular point of daily duty and a part of religion. But our heart sinks within us with intense grief when we contrast this outward worship with the manner in which he actually treats his Holy Books-the embodiment of the Letterless voice, the unspoken word. We have not yet come across a single Shastra which was correctly written. The spelling mistakes are so many, and so bad, that very often the very sense of the text is confounded, and the reader is at a loss to attach any meaning to the jumble of meaningless words. An idex is a thing quite unknown, and unheard of. Catalogues of the sacred books in a temple are seldom met with, and if any is ever prepared it has no pretence to any system at all, alphabetical, subject-wise, or with reference to the authors. The books are again rarely arranged in shelf. They are thrown away pell-mell in a wooden box and then stowed away in some dark, damp and dirty corner. Our people do not even know the names of more than a dozen sacred books on Philosophy and Metaphysics. There are scarcely half a dozen men who can truly be called real scholars of Jainism, and yet, as the President Manikehand truly remarks, there is a no insignificant portion of our community which regards the publication of our scriptures as an act of sacrilege. Such an attitude is so devoid of sense that he calls it " obstinacy." This obstinate opposition to rescuing our sacred literature from absolute destruction and decay has been actually working for the last 20 years. Were it not for the labours of Western scholars, and for the devotion of men like Messrs. V. R. Gandhi, J. L. Jaini, and F. K. Lalan even the word Jainism would have been a thing unknown to the non-Jain world.
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The President makes proper mention of the Bharat Jain Mahamandal (the All-India Jain Association) and of its allied institutions, the Jain Literature Society, London, and the Jain Sidhant Bhavan Arrah as neuclii of Jain Dharm Prabhavana which would help to spread the glory of Jainism far and wide
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
