Jainism

Author(s): M R Gelra
Publisher: Createspace

Page 15

DR M.R. GELRA
AUTHOR
Dr. Mahavir Raj Gelra born on 20th March, 1933 at Jodhpur (Rajasthan) is currently residing at Jaipur (Rajasthan), India. He is Emeritus Professor in Jainology in Jain Vishva Bharti Institute, Ladnun, India.
At a very young age of 22 in 1955, Dr. Gelra had held very important talks on Jain philosophy with the then, Vice President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan. In 1958, his participation in the International conference on Vegetarianism, Bhopal, also received much recognition. In 1982, he visited the Indology Departments of Universities of Hamburg and Berlin (Germany) and conducted research on Jainism. He returned to Germany four years later to participate in the International Congress for Asian and North African Studies at Hamburg, West Germany to read the paper on "Sallekhna is not Suicide". He then attended and chaired a series of sessions in the following International symposiums for the History of Mathematics and Mathematical Education:
- Gunma University, Japan, 1987 - Maebashi University, Japan, 1999 - Tianjin Normal University, China, 2002
Dr. Gelra also chaired the International Round Table conference on Jainism on the occasion of 22nd World Congress on Philosophy, Seoul (Korea) in 2008. In Rome, he presented the Anuvrat fundamentals and Jain Philosophy during his participation at International meeting for interfaith prayers organized by the Community of Saint Egidio, at the Vatican City. The Lion's Club, Rome had especially honoured him. Dr. Gelra is the founder vice-chancellor of JVBI, the Jain University in Ladnun. He was also the Editor (Founder) of Jain Research Journal, Tulsi Pragya. Outside of this role, he has travelled extensively to bring Jainism to the world and organized various International Conferences on Jainism.