YJA Convention 1996 07 San Francisco CA Second

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

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other communities will go through as they come closer to their goal of having a temple in their own community. And we are sorry if we hurt anyone's feelings.
Pittsburgh faced the problem of community size and thus money which caused them to build a Jain/Hindu temple. While this proves to have problems such as eating prashad in front of the murti(a Hindu belief) it causes karma (bad karma) in Jainism. This is considered a minor inconvenience because without it, they would have no temple. This is only one problem they face in a multi-religion temple.
Chicago, which is a Jain temple only, faces other issues such as allowing their hall to be rented out to people who will serve potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. While this seems to be a minor issue, it could split a community and thus cause strife and chaos. There are also issues of pleasing the different sects of Jainism in the temple and the followers of Shrimhad Rajchandra.
Detroit faces it's own brand of problems. While the temple is under construction still, they face the same problems Chicago faces. In addition, the community is split on the issue of opulence in a temple. Some believe that the temple is being built with too much opulence and this increasing cost and construction time while others believe that this is necessary for a temple. Such strife causes a community to be at each others throats rather than being at harmony with one another and the world as is taught by the Jain religion.
Conclusions:
While we have brought up some questions on the building of temples, we feel that these question should be solved in a harmonious and Jain-like fashion. We should still build temples as they are necessary to the betterment of our religion but we should not let this destroy our belief in the religion and the comprising of our principles in the building of such a temple. We regret if we have harmed anyone while writing this and wish we could give more information in this. Thank you.
JAI JINENDRA!
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