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SHREE CHITRABHANU
L.M.: There was no place for you to meet.
S.C.: Then an American lady, her name was Elizabeth Cattell, she opened her house to us. She said, you can come to New York. She was an old lady, a very good person; she was a Quaker. Thus, my wife, Pramodaji, and I stayed some fifteen months in her house. She did not charge any rent. And she began to follow my teachings. Later on, she wrote a book about me. During that time, I got an invitation to teach Oriental philosophy at the State University of New York college in Purchase. I accepted that because I wanted to earn a living here in America. I cannot live on alms here. In India, I was living on alms.
Then in 1973 I opened a meditation center in Manhattan on Eighty-sixth street. My students rented that place and I was teaching meditation there. It started off very slowly. The first Jain temple we had was in our meditation center; now it is in Queens. Then I decided to spread the Jain message. A former church in Boston was turned into a temple. Also, in New Jersey and in Toronto, we turned former churches into temples. And later we moved into a very big building in Toronto. In this way, the journey started in 1971. And now, about 80,000 Jains belong to our JAINA organization.
L.M.: Is that only in the U.S.?
S.C.: We call it JAINA, which means Jain Associations in North America.
L.M.: So the U.S. and Canada together have 80,000 members? That's very impressive.
S.C.: There are fifty-seven centers now. So Jainism is taking flight, Jainism is everywhere now. But not as a religion. It is the idea of reverence for life—it is a way of living. That is why it has become famous. Now I am arranging a children's program. It began in 1996. The first time, two hundred boys and girls stayed together for three days in Chicago. In 1997, there were six hundred boys and girls.
L.M.: It was a retreat for youth with you?
S.C.: The boys and girls are over sixteen but under thirty-five years of age. They have an organization called YJA or Young Jains of America. The third
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