YJA Convention 2000 07 LA Fourth

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

Page 10

Vow of Silence For five years he took a vow of silence (mohan), wandering the mountains, forests and villages. He experienced a silence that stills the logic of the mind and awakens from within the deepest intuition of the spirit.
With Humanity When the years of silence were over, his guru proclaimed him ready to go out into the world and speak. Under his guru's guidance he began to travel, meet people every day, and witness life in its diversity all over the country: its joys, its beauties, and its hardships. He spoke before villagers, boys and girls at schools, and prisoners in jail. He also plunged into humanitarian work, raising resources and motivating people to help in times of earthquakes in Maharashtra, famine in Bihar, floods in Gujarat, and for animal welfare by founding the Divine Knowledge Society in Bombay in 1964 to coordinate such welfare activities, including stopping slaughterhouses during holidays.
“Chitrabhanu” He also began writing. His books and poems stirred people's good feelings. His poem that runs "Maitri Bhavanu Pavitra Jharanu...", which he wrote under the pen name Chitrabhanu, became very popular. His books reached abroad and aroused considerable interest in Ahinsa and Jainism. While in Mumbai many non-Indians started coming to him from various countries to study meditation and Jain Dharma.
Vision From these activities, he heard a different call that invited him to explore other attitudes and altitudes, and to travel other paths. The Sanskrit term for what he did is sadhana. He realized there was much for the world to learn and more to understand from the vast reaches of wisdom and experiences of the Jinas' Ahinsa, Anekantavada, and reverence for all life. For him, each journey was a poem, each step a rhyme. His footsteps covered vast grounds (now an estimated 30,000 miles or more) without stopping to calculate where they were going or worrying about ‘arriving'. It was just a joy of wandering, a joy of living. He launched a campaign to close down slaughterhouses, which successfully led to a complete ban on cow slaughter in nine states of India.
Transformation When the directors of The Temple of Understanding in India invited him to attend The Second Spiritual Summit Conference to be held in April 1970 in Geneva, Switzerland, he searched deeply within his heart to decide: What was his duty? What was his choice? To continue in his high position to which he had grown accustomed or break new ground? He felt it important to involve all other religions and spiritual groups of the world and make them aware of the blessings of Ahinsa. He realized that his sectarian, cloistered life was limiting his vision and purpose, which were for universal and global harmony"without borders”.
He attended the conference in Geneva and his inspiring message was received with a standing ovation. This led to invitations from the Dean of Harvard Divinity School, from institutes in Paris and Munich, and from the Secretary of the Vatican to have an audience with Pope Paul VI in Rome. As a philosopher and teacher, this trip gave him new perceptions as the western world experienced its first encounter with a Jain master of such international vision.