YJA Convention 2002 07 NJ Fifth

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

Page 10

Gurudev Chitrabanuji
Gurudev Chitrabhanu was the first monk to establish Ahinsa and reverence for life in the western world. Gurudev was born Rup-Rajendra Shah on July 26, 1922 in a village in Rajasthan, India. He attended college at Bangalore and earned a degree in psychology. His spirit of adventure and idealism led him to meet Mahatma Gandhi whose Ahinsa-approach to the British had touched him. Young Rup-Rajendra was once beaten by a British policeman for participating in India's Freedom Movement. Rup found forgiving the officer who had hurt him a very moving experience. Something happened that day.
He began to seek out masters who could enlighten him to receive answers to his perplexity about the mystery of death. Foremost in his mind were the deaths of his mother when he was age four, his sister when he was twelve, and his closest friend whose father, even as a doctor, could not save her. He found the renowned Jain master Acharya Sagaranand Surishvarji at Palitana. Inspired by him, Rup Rajendra took Disksha (initiation) on February 6, 1942 at the age of 20 and became a Jain monk. For the next 29 years he would be known as Muni Chandraprabha Sagarji, the change in name traditionally signifying a change in life. In extraordinary solidarity, his father in Tumkur soon became a monk as well.
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. 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 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..
From these activities, he heard a different call that invited him to explore other attitudes and altitudes, and to travel other paths. 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. His footsteps covered vast grounds (now an estimated 30,000 miles or more). It was the joy of wandering, the 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.
Directors of The Temple of Understanding in India invited him to attend The Second Spiritual Summit Conference on April 1970 in Geneva. His inspiring message was received with a standing ovation. He felt it important to involve all other religions and spiritual groups of the world and make them aware of the blessings of Ahinsa. 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.
He decided he would not remain a traditional sadhu but instead lead the life of a lay sadhaka (aspirant). In the spring of 1970 in a simple ceremony, he married his spiritual companion Pramoda Shah who was a graduate student of psychology and whose spiritual quest had led her to join his mission. He envisioned having to go through all aspects of life to complete his cycle of evolution. He visited Africa and Europe, and at the invitation of Harvard Divinity School and the Temple of Understanding he came to the United States in 1971.
He was the first to celebrate Mahavira Jayanti at the UN Chapel. In 1973 he founded the Jain Meditation International Center in New York City, near the United Nations. In 1975 he also sponsored a dynamic personality from India, Acharya Sushil Kumarji, who would go on to establish the Siddhachalam Jain Tirtha in New Jersey.
He inspired American Jains to create religious centers all throughout America, which would help to guide individuals sow the seeds of non-violence and reverence for all life, and also to help spread the understanding of karma and self-realization.
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