Vijaydharmasuri

Author(s): A J Sunavala
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Page 79

A SCHOLAR AND A PREACHER
literary treasures of his libraries accessible to Western as well as Eastern scholars. He provides European scholars interested in the study of the civilization and especially of the literature of the Jainas with manuscripts and such other important and useful materials as would otherwise be impossible for them to obtain in Europe. The Yashovijaya Jaina Pathashālā of Benares and such other institutions founded and established by him admit students without any distinction of caste or creed. The volumes of the Yashovijaya Jaina Granthamālā and other books written and published by him and his disciples are freely sent to all the important libraries, Jain and non-Jain, all over the country.
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BIGOTRY AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS DENOUNCED
The greatest triumph of the Acharya, however, consists in his having conquered and subjugated bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Unlike the other monks, who enclose themselves within the narrow circle of their daily religious duties, and who refrain from any intercourse with persons holding heterodox opinions and beliefs, Vijaya Dharma Sūri extends his broad sympathy to men of all communities, creeds and faiths. Above all good and evil, absolutely free from what we call hatred or repulsion, nothing repels him, nothing drives him back. He is love and compassion to everything, love and compassion to all. He spreads round him, as it were, an embracing circle of sympathy and compassion. All that come near him, all that
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