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The Jains through Time
very deprived. They lack proper provision unemployment and various types of for health and education, and a proper addiction are increasing. I feel terrible infrastructure for development and anguish when I see that the glorious past of commerce has not been set up. Sometimes it these places has disappeared; when I see appears that this backwardness, this slow pace these mountains and forests, once hallowed of development, has in itself become one of by superhuman feats of spirituality, reduced the hallmarks of our holy places. There is to being places of iniquity. I feel great sorrow dependency instead of self-sufficiency; when I see places once described as centres instead of being welcomed, travellers are of knowledge, now drowning in illiteracy. robbed of their belongings. In fact, neither Places where great world religions were life nor property is safe in these regions. born are now notorious for their staggering People who visit these places make generous infant mortality rates. Places that attracted donations, as they come for religious the great souls of the world with the rich purposes and they feel an attachment for the perfume of their culture and spirituality, are place. They are eager to do something for now overrun with poverty, unemployment local development but often they do not get and crime. Anywhere you go today the the co-operation of the locals. The local situation is the same, whether it be Rajgir, people benefit from the generosity of the Pavapuri, Guniyaji, Shikharji, Vaishali or philanthropic pilgrims, but once the largesse Champapuri. The bitter truth is that all these has been dispensed to them, they promptly social evils tend to be concentrated in our disperse. They do not even use the money holy sites - turning them into places of for their own or their family's welfare. danger and degradation.
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Such acts of charity have actually become an obstacle rather than a spur to development because they breed a dependent culture and provide cash for social evils. Poverty,
It is vital that we change the situation as soon as possible. We hope that our places of pilgrimage will once again become centres of knowledge, purity and spiritual awareness.
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