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Virchand Raghavaji Gandhi: Assessment of a Jaina..: 101
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of breathing, and the occult, generated much interest, and continue to be meaningful. He taught how one can strengthen will, nullify negative propensities, expand consciousness, and awaken inner powers. His views on spirituality are well suited to this age of scientific enquiry and rationalistic criticism.
As a crusader for the Jaina causes he succeeded in obtaining tax exemption for pilgrims( 1886) to the sacred Mount Satruñjaya (Gujarat), through a compromise with the ruler of Palitana, by using the good offices of Lord Reay, Governor of Bombay (Mumbai). He filed a case for the closure of tallow factory of Mr Boddam on Sammed-Shikhar (Shikharji ), the venerable peak of Jainas in Jharkhand, and won it after great effort. He was a great patriot, and his concern for the masses grew out of his sense of identity with humanity. While in the USA he could raise forty thousand rupees for the famine stricken people of India and arrange to send a steamer full of grains (1896). He remained a pure vegetarian throughout his life, sometime surviving on raw or boiled vegetables in the cold climate of America and Europe,45 thus becoming a living legend for the supporters of vegetarianism, in his time. Like Swami Vivekananda, he wanted a synthesis of tradition and modernity, of science and spirituality, so that mankind could have peace as well as prosperity. He left his mortal coil on August 7,1901, in Mumbai.
References:
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See The Jaina Philosophy. Speeches and Writings of Virchand R. Gandhi. Edited by Kumarpal Desai. Mumbai: World Jaina Confederation,2009, pp. 105-7, 271-76.(Hereafter cited as The Jaina Philosophy).
Walter R. Houghton(ed.), Neely's History of the Parliament of religions and Religious Congresses at the World's Columbia Exposition. Chicago and New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1894, pp.61-62,853-54,732-36. (Hereafter cited as Houghton).
The Chicago Daily Tribune, September 26, 1893.
Ibid.
Houghton, pp.61-62.
Ibid., pp, 732-36.
Ibid.
Ibid.
