Pratap Bhogilal Journey Through Life

Author(s): Rauf Ahmed
Publisher: Bhupendra Singh Anand

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PRATAP BHOGILAL - JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE
that the UGC should consider setting up a University in North Gujarat and that Patan would be the right venue for it. She was receptive to the idea and promised to appoint a committee to select the appropriate venue for it. Ramdas Kilachand, who was in Patan at the time, took her to show the Polytechnic there. He also talked to her about setting up a University for North Gujarat in Patan. The UGC appointed a committee to study the proposal. Finally, Patan, which was the karma bhoomi of Acharya Hemchandra, was chosen as the venue for the North Gujarat University. After a few years and after tremendous efforts the name of Acharya Hemchandra was prefixed to the University's name. .
Jain Muni Pujya Jambuvijayji
It was Dr. V.M.Kulkarni who suggested that we should seek the guidance of the eminent scholar among Jain Munis, Pujya Muni Jambuvijayji, on running the Bhogilal Leherchand Institute.Jambuvijayji had done a lot of work on the Jain Agamas. I was very happy to meet him, and he promised to guide the Institute and suggest the research work to be carried out. He told me he himself had done a lot of research on the Jain Agamas. I told him that BLII would be very happy to publish his works. He liked the idea. BLII has since published a few of his works. Apart from other research publications, I had the opportunity to meet Pujya Muni Jambuvijayji two or three times a year in that connection.
Commemoration of my father's interests
After my father's death, I had turned to more social, religious and charitable activities. It occured to me that commemorating his various interests would be a worthwhile deed. Since he was keenly interested in comparative religion, we established the BLII, first in Patan and then shifted it to Delhi in consultation with Mahattara Sadhvi Mrugavatishriji. My father took keen interest in dance and music, so we donated to a school for dance and music in Patan named after him. We established an Ayurvedic Hospital in his name at Patan and passed it on to the government of Gujarat to run. My father believed in Ayurveda.
We can have facts without thinking, but we cannot have thinking without facts. -
John Dewey