Vijaydharmasuri

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

Page 85

AND ITS RESULTS
79
JAINA-SHĀSANA, DHARMA-DESHANĀ AND
DHARMĀBHYUDAYA In the year 1911 a fortnightly paper called the Jaina-Shāsana came to be published in Hindi and Gujarati,- the result of Vijaya Dharma Sūri's noble efforts in that direction. The paper aimed at spreading amongst the Jain community a better, a deeper and a truer knowledge of their own faith. Vijaya Dharma Sûri himself contributed to its columns a series of articles in Gujarati under the title of Dharma-Deshanā or religious instruction. These articles were greatly appreciated by the people, so much so that they were afterwards collected into a separate volume bearing the same title. The book may be aptly called a handy manual of Jainism, laying before the reader an easy and popular exposition of the Jain faith. The text is divided into four parts, which in their turn fall into a number of brief chapters; and all these chapters are full of practical information regarding the present state of Jainism. In every page of the book the author shows himself a keen observer of human nature, and his remarks on the present spiritual condition of a certain portion of his flock are at once pungent, fresh and vivifying. Each page of the book is a standing monument of the writer's skill in the subtlest reasonings; and the frequent quotations of Sanskrit and Prākrit verses with which the text is interspersed, as well as the interesting anecdotes by which the exposition is