Vardhaman Book on Jainism

Author(s): Jayshree Menon
Publisher: Bennete Coleman & Co Ltd

Page 36

ity in the semi-arid desert of central Rajasthan, revolves. Facilities here include a library stocked with over 40,000 books and 5,000 rare manuscripts, an art gallery, a 60-room meditation and yoga centre,separate hostels for boys and girls, an English medium secondary school,computer centre, as well as a bank, printing press, canteen and an Ayurvedic centre.
The university community, apart from the administrative staff, comprises a faculty of 22 and 60 students and only 10per cent of them are Jains. Regardless of their origins, all are required to follow a strict code of conduct: abstinence from smoking, drinking and violence, pure veg. etarianism, participation in morning prayers, meditation and yoga, love and respect for all living things both on and off the campus.
"We are not in the numbers game and are well aware that these requirements, combined with the fact that most of the degree courses are not ex
"The university is
a temple, the teacher the priests, the students the devotee and knowledge the
deity" Acharya Tulsi
actly job oriented, may result in low enrollment. However, what we are attempting to achieve here is very relevant as it becomes increasingly important that we do not lose sight of man's spiritual destiny in today's world of modern technology and growing materialism," says S. Bengani, the Kulpati or Chancellor of the Institute.
In addition to its graduate and postgraduate studies, the Institute also conducts a 3-month residential course in meditation and yoga. Students who undertake this training course are accommodated in the 60-room meditation centre and are expected to follow a stringent daily routine which starts with them waking at 4 am and following a strict Jain vegetarian diet that included total fasting between sunset and sunrise.
Alternatively, visitors and tourists may opt for the less stringent 15-day or 7-day course while residing in the three guesthouses (with attached kitchens that prepare simple yet wholesome Jain vegetarian meals), that overlook a garden built around the samadhi of Acharya Tulsi who died in 1998 at the age of 86.
Acharya Tulsi was the spiritual head of the com
VARDHAMAN 36
Jan Education International