The Jain 1988 07

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 83

THE
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part of the Leicester Jain community. Religious and social functions were organised and a cyclostyled periodical, Jain News, was published. In 1979 the opportunity came to purchase permanent premises. The building, a disused chapel, was in poor condition and would need considerable funds to convert it. But it was in a central location and the farsighted decision was taken to purchase it. Immediately the Jain Centre gave a place of their own to the Leicester Jains and indeed Jains of all Europe. No longer were functions held in hired halls in different parts of the city. In nine years it has been transformed. The ambitious plan to create a Jain Centre for Europe attracted generous donations. On 25th August 1985 three images of Tirthankaras, Shantinatha, Parsva and Mahavira were be installed in the Centre, having previously been consecrated in rituals in India, to make this the first Jain temple with fullyconsecrated images in the Western world. The consecration was carried out by Acharya Shri Padmasagar Suri Maharajji to whom Jains in Europe are greatly indebted.
Not only Jains will admire the Jain Centre when it is completed. The white marble frontage on Oxford Street will be visible to the constant stream of motorists and people who pass by. This Centre will be open to everybody, Jain and non-Jain, and the auditorium, dining room and other facilities will be available for functions.
The library is planned to attract scholars from all over Europe and it is hoped a fine collection of books on Jainism will be built over the years. For the pious pilgrim, visiting Leicester for religious purposes, the central temple will be the main attraction. Here in a shrine or Garbhagriha of carved stone and marble exhibiting the finest work of Indian stone carvers, the three central images of Shantinath, Parswanath and Mahavir are being installed in their permanent position during the Pratistha Ceremonies in July 1988, in the presence of many thousands of people from Britain and abroad. But there is also Digamber temple housing images of Rishabhdev, Neminath and Parswanath as well as a 2 metre high statue of Bahubali. For Sthanakwasi there is an Uparhraya. In addition there is a Gurusthanak, and those who admire the life and teachings of Shrimad Rajchandra can pause in the Shrimad Rajchandra Jain Mandir.
Jainism in the Western World is rather new. Yet
Jainism is not an exclusive faith restricted to a relatively small population in India. Jainism offers something to the whole world, in the West as well as East, a message of peace and hope.
The generosity of donors in India has provided a pillared temple of carved stone to house the images on the upper floor of the Centre and it is expected that this temple will become a destination for pilgrims from all over Europe, and indeed beyond. In recognition of its expanded role Jain Samaj Leicester became Jain Samaj Europe. The Jain is the quarterly trilingual publication of Jain Samaj Europe. The Centre will have a strong concern for the propagation of the principles of ahimsa and other Jain tenets, as well as for providing information on Jainism to inquirers. This all sounds easy on paper but it has meant hard and unremitting work over many years for the members of the Jain community and their Executive Committee under the presidency of Dr. Natubhai Shah.
The Jain communities in the Western world maintain contacts with India. They do, of course, lack the guidance of Jain monks and nuns which can be taken for granted in India, though a few people with previous experience of the mendicant order have been prepared to travel to the Western world. But the Jain communities of Europe and North America have had very largely to rely on their own resources in the religious, as in the community, field. One feature of Jainsim in the Western world is that sectarian differences are often forgotten in the new organisations as Jains of all persuasions work together as followers of Mahavira.
What of the future? Jainism in the Western world is at a crucial stage. Much depends on making sure that the coming generation will be able to accept the modern Western world without losing their Jain faith. Jainism is, perhaps of all religious traditions, best adapted to fit in with this modern scientific age. One can see a bright future, with Jainism looking outwards, not introverted, well-established in the Western world and contributing the age-old, but up-to-date, principles of Jain philosophy, ethics and science to the modern Western world. - Paul Marett
(Dr. Paul Marett lectures on intellectual property law in Loughborough University, U.K. He is an Honorary Life Member of Jain Samaj Europe).