Book Title: Jainism The Cosmic Vision
Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: UK Mahavir Foundation London

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 248
________________ Activities of Jain Religion in the Last Century But at the same time the big arrogant nations, hungering for power and wealth and datermined to defeat one another, are challenging one another. One, therefore, feels that the world is on the brink of total ruin. Today when man, instead of being shut in by narrow outlook, superficial conduct or aversion, to other religions, craves to extract from religion such thoughts or conceptions that would inspire human welfare and to understand and expound them for the awakening of the whole of human race, the high ideals preached by the Jain religion such as non-harming, self-restraint, austerities, anekantavada, universal friendship and tolerance can help the modern man's march towards universal love and world peace. Precisely this is the essence of the Jain religion in the present context and perhaps at all times. If we think of the Jain Institution and its activities, we find that research began with the Arrah publication of 'The Sacred Book of Jains'. The Jain Sahityika Sanshodhak Mandal of Pune published the research works of Muni Jinavijayji. Similarly, Nathuram Premi, the founder of Hindi Grantha Ratnakar and Jugalkishore Mukhatyar of the Vir Seva Mandir conducted important research work in this field. After having published as many as forty books the Jain Cultural Research Society wound up its activities. The Prakrit Text Society was founded in Delhi in 1954. This institution was shifted from Delhi to Banaras and from Banaras to Ahmedabad. It published translations of several useful Prakrit works. The editing of the book 'Sanmati Tarka' is a memorable work of Puratattva Mandir of Ahmedabad. It also gave us Gopaldas Patel's translation of important Agamic Texts. The Gomateshvar Shodh Sansthanak, The Todarmal Shodh Sansthan in Jaipur and the 231 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276