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SINGHI JAIN SERIES
tunately I was forced to leave this very inspiring and holy place on account of unfavourable climatic conditions etc. which I had to face during my stay of about four years there. I shifted, therefore, from Viśvabharati to Ahmedabad where I had formerly resided and worked in those glorious days when the Gujarat Vidyapitha and the Puratattva Mandira had been established as a part of the movement for national awakening and cultural regeneration. I went there in the hope that the reminiscences of those days and the proximity of those places would serve as sources of inspiration in my literary pursuits.
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During this period of my aim of life had centred round the Singhi Jain Series and I devoted every iota of my energy to its development and progress.
In June, 1938, I received, to my agreeable surprise, letter from my esteemed friend Śrī K. M. Munshi who was, then, the Home Minister of the Congress Ministry of the Bombay Presidency. In that letter he had mentioned that Sheth śri Mungalal Goenka had placed a liberal sum of two lakhs of rupees at his disposal for the establishment of a good academic institution for Indological studies and he had asked me to come down to Bombay to discuss and prepare a scheme for that. Accordingly, I came here and saw Munshiji. Knowing that he had a fervent desire of founding at Bombay an institution of the type of the Puratattva Mandira, I was extremely delighted and I showed my eagerness to offer for that such services as might be possible for me. We, then, began to draft out a scheme and after some deliberations and exchange of ideas the outline of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavana was settled. Accordingly, on the auspicious full-moon day of the Kartika of 1995 (V.S.) the opening ceremony of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavana took place amidst the clappings and rejoicings of a magnificent party which was arranged at the residence of Munshiji. The brilliant achievement and the wide publicity which the Bhavan has been able to secure during its short career of the last few years bear eloquent testimony to the inexhaustible fund of energy and unsurpassed skill of Munshiji. As I am inseparably linked up with it from its very beginning, I also feel the same amount of joy and interest at the Bhavan's progress as Śrī Munshiji, its Founder-President, and therefore I have been always offering my humble services in its various undertakings and activities.
On the other hand, the Singhi Jain Series is the principal aim of my remaining life and the results of my thinking, meditation, researches and writings have all been devoted to the development of the Series. As life passes on, the time of activity is also naturally shortened and therefore it was quite appropriate, now, for me to chalk out lines of its future programme and permanence.
Jain Education International
As Babu Bahadur Singhji Singhi, the noble founder and the sole patron of the Series, had placed the whole responsibility of the Series on me from its inception, he had also the right to expect that more and more works might more speedily and splendidly be published. I have neither seen nor come across any other gentleman who can match with him as regards generosity and unbounded zeal for the revival of ancient literature. On the works of the Series he had spent through me more than 75,000 rupees during his life-time. But he had not even once asked me, during this long period of a dozen years, as to how and for what works the amount was spent. Whenever the account was submitted to him, he did not ask for even the least information but sanctioned it casting merely a formal glance on the account sheets. He, however, discussed very minutely the details regarding things such as the paper, types, printing, binding, get-up, etc. as well as internal subjects like Preface and others, and occasionally gave very useful suggestions thereon with deep interest. His only desire being to see the publication of as many works as possible in his life-time, he was always ready to spend as much after it, as required. He did not labour under a delusion that the things should be done in this or that way when he was no more.
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