Book Title: Santbal A Saint with a Difference
Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

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Page 116
________________ In spite of all these public engagements and the time consumed in personally attending to his day-to-day personal work, he could find sufficient time for studying scriptures of all religions and writing scholarly books on them. He has written two volumes on the commentary on Gita, two volumes on Epics of Mahabharat and Ramayana and two volumes on Bhagvat. This is apart from his commentary on Jain scriptures like Acharang, Dasha Vaikalik and Uttaradhyayan, Tatwartha-Sutra and other books explaining his philosophy of reconstruction of social order on ethical basis, Anubandh Vichar and Shuddhi Prayog, As his contemporary orthodox Jains could not appreciate his views as to how a Jain Saint should discharge his obligations to the society and insisted on the necessity to get himself and confined to the development only of his individual soul, it is worthwhile 'noting that none of his public and intellectual activities prevented him from rigidly following all the fundamental prescriptions prescribed by the scriptures for a Jain Saint. Those prescriptions which were moderated by him related only to formalities, and looking to the requirements of the modern age, changes made by him were only on the conservative side. His rigid insistence on truth and morality many a times looked impractical but on most of such occasions be proved right, though after covering a good deal of testing ground. His Wide-ranging Padayatra : Manibhai notes that from 1944 A. D. when he joined Santbal, the later passed twenty-six Chaturmas at various places during which he contacted 3476 villages and walked over 12,627 miles on foot, and apart from the whole of Gujarat, visited many States such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, U. P., Orissa, Bihar and Bengal to spread his message. 90 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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