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THE WAVE OF BLISS
of contemporary challenges and frustrations in order to help the people to discover and develop their own inner self and increase their soul power and energy for their own moral and spiritual rejuvination. He expressed his objective very aptly: "I do not want to teach people their duties or any doctrines of religion, I want to arouse them from their complacencies, to stir their hearts, to vivify their imagination, to bring them from their little selves to the higher of which they are capable". His audiences abroad have felt inspired by his message to cleanse their hearts with the flow of amity, appreciation, compassion and equanimity and to radiate these qualities into every aspect of life.
What is noteworthy is the free and frank communication between him and his disciples. What is admirable is the respect, love and the admiration he commands from them. What is inspiring is how much interest and involvement he has developed in the hearts and minds of American and European Jains towards religion not for its sake, but as a way of life, as an answer to crisis and difficulties that one comes face to face in life.
I have known Gurudev from early 70s when we first met in New York at the UN Chapel (The Temple of Understanding) where both of us were scheduled to speak on Non-violence and message of Jainism on the occasion of Lord Mahavira's birthday. I took an instant liking to him. He was at once so simple and accessible, profound and deeply philosophical, religious and scholarly. He was a happy combination of being detached and at the same time attached. But he came out to my mind in the first place as an utterly honest person, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally.
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