| | | Jai Jinendra!
JAINA Delegation attended many programs in India in January 2017 and summary of a few are given below. Details of other events will be provided in next Newsletter. YJA- Youth wing of JAINA - has rolled out on-line Pathshala. For the first time in history of Global Jain Community, children and youths can now access Pathshala course from anywhere in the world on any device connected to internet at any time. Please click yja.org/pathshala for access. Details are below.
|  | JAINA Convention Board has extended the current Registration fee until February 15, 2017. More than 2,350 attendees have registered to-date. Registration fee is only $ 269 for Adult and $ 169 for Youth for JAINA Convention from June 30 to July 4, 2017 in New Jersey. Please visit www.jaina.org to register.
Sincerely,
Ashok Domadia
JAINA President
Chairman - JAINA BOD | | | | | | One devoted whole-heartedly equally to knowledge, faith and right conduct can accomplish duty of the sramana fully. | | - Bhagwan Mahavir | | | | JAINA DELEGATION VISITS CHIEF MINISTER OF GUJARAT | |  | | On January 18, 2017, JAINA Delegation led by JAINA President Ashok Domadia visited first Jain Chief Minister of Gujarat - Vijaybhai Rupani - in CM office at Gandhinagar. JAINA Delegation included from left Raju Shah - Los Angeles, Haresh Shah - Delaware, Jitendra Shah - LD Institure, Ahmedabad, Dilip Shah - Philadelphia, Acharya Lokesh Muni - New Delhi, Harshid Shah - Virginia, Ashok Domadia - San Francisco, Gunvant Shah - New Jersey, Dhimen Vora - Ahmedabad and Kuntal Sanghavi - Ahmedabad. | | JAINA Delegation enthusiastically congratulated Mr. Rupani for being a first Jain Chief Minister of Gujarat. JAINA President Ashok Domadia presented a Navkarmantra plaque, JAINA Calendar and Jain Digest which were greatly admired by CM. | | JAINA Delegation invited Chief Minister to be the Chief Guest at JAINA Convention - 2017. There was a lively discussion on what JAINA can do in cooperation with Government of Gujarat. JAINA President asked Chief Minister for his interest level in collaborating with JAINA to keep Jains most sacred pilgrimage Palitana clean. The Chief Minister was instantly interested and said a proposal would be ready in a few months where JAINA can likely participate in Swatchh Palitana campaign. | | | | |  | Mallinath Bhagwan is the 19th Tirthankar of the Avsarpani kaal. He was born to King Kumbha and Queen Prabhavati Devi in the city of Ayodhya. He attained nirvana at Samet Shikhar and had 28 Gandhars. He took 3 bhavs after Samyak Darshan to attain moksh. The topic of his first sermon was Samta (Neutral to all situations).
One should always remain neutral in all types of situations whether its is adverse or favourable. One should not become pitiable at times of crisis or adversity, but should be normal, as crisis should not snatch our happiness because getting trouble or pleasure is according to our Karmas. We should happily accept the grief and happiness as it comes as these are only results of our karmas. |
| | | JAINA and LD INSTITUTE SEMINAR: FUTURE OF JAINISM | |  | | On January 16,2017 there was a one day seminar jointly organized by JAINA and L D Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad. The seminar was chaired by President of Shri Anandji Kalyanji Pedhi, Honorable Samvegbhai Lalbhai. JAINA President Mr. Ashok Domadia, First Vice President Mr. Gunvant Shah, Past President Mr. Dilip Shah and a few American friends represented JAINA. Also in attendance were Sadhvi Shri Supragnas. There were two main themes for the day long seminar: 1) Future of Jainism, 2)Jainism and Science. Both are timely topics of interest for the world jain community. | | Director of L D Institute Dr. Jitendra B Shah welcomed guests and scholars and spoke of the research on Indology the institute has been conducting for the past 60 years. The seminar was a new initiative by JAINA in so far as our two institutions have a common goal of spread of Jainism and synergy of joining the hands will result in many successful projects in the future. What is needed is leadership and study of Jain principles. First we must discovers scientific secrets hidden in our canonical literatures (Agams) and present them to the world in scientific language. This could be a great boon to the world. Dissemination of such hidden knowledge can benefit both - our religion and the science. |  | | JAINA President, Mr. Ashok Domadia discussed various activities JAINA is involved in. He described uniform pathshala curriculum across all 67 Jain center in North America, religious discourses, Biennial JAINA conventions, prayer meeting at the White House etc. He praised cooperation by L D Institute in producing beautiful 2017 JAINA Calendar and expressed hope that the cooperation between the two organizations will result in more special projects. | | | | | |  | Jain Darshan is Aatmavadi Darshan, and has an inherent capacity to know all things, if the souls were in its perfection. Higher the degree of purity, higher the capacity to know. Knowledge plays an important part in the conception of soul and its emancipation. According to Jainism, consciousness or awareness is the essential quality of each individual soul. By itself a soul doesn’t require any external means to gain knowledge because knowledge is inherent in its essential nature and by that it has omniscience (Kevalgyan). | | Knowledge doesn’t arise because of perception or mental activity. It exists in itself, whether we know or not and whether we perceive things or not. However in a state of bondage such knowledge becomes covered by the impurity of karma and remains inaccessible to the souls. Thereby the souls lose their omniscience temporarily and rely upon limited means and intermediate sources such as the mind and the senses to gain knowledge and make sense of their experiences and existence. | | | | | | | Registration for the Mid-Atlantic (2/18-2/20), South (3/10-3/12) and Southeast (3/17-3/19) Retreats is now open at yja.org! The Mid-West Retreat is sold out but sign up for the waitlist to receive updates in case of a cancellation. The retreats are filling quickly so be sure to reserve your place soon! | | Sign up for YJA Pathshala, our new online pathshala program, at ! This is a low-time commitment, low-stress way to build (or refresh, if it’s been a while) your knowledge of Jainism basics and discover the parts of our religion that you connect the most with. #YJAPathshala | | The application to host the next YJA convention is now open at yja.org/2018! Interested in bring #YJA18 to your city? Fill out the Bid Packet! If you have any questions, please feel free to email and get excited for the 2018 YJA Convention! | | | | | | The newly appointed Jain Youth of the Capital (JYOC), established under the auspices of the Jain Society of Metropolitan Washington (JSMW), held a clothing drive to give back to our community, during the months of November and December 2016. They collected clothes via a donation box in the temple, as well as in Pathshala, with incentives for the class who collected the most. Overall, JYOC collected a little under 3,000 items of clothing in the span of around 6 weeks. This was extremely successful for JYOC’s first event! On January 27th, 2017, these clothes were donated to Shepherd's Table located in Silver Spring, MD, and from there they were distributed to the homeless and disadvantaged in the immediate area. | |
| | |    | | | |  JAINA would request you to share your thoughts on 'Usefulness of Religious Knowledge in our Daily Life'.. The thought provoking articles will get published in our newsletter and at www.jaina.org. Please send your entries to [email protected] by 18th February, 2017.
Competition Rules:
1. Age: No bar
2. Articles should be in English language and maximum 300 words long in a word file.
3. Writing style must be clear and easy to understand.
4.Please write your name, address and phone number along with the Article.
5. Articles are welcomed from anywhere in the world. | | | | 
To get the answer please visit website | | Leshya Puzzle:
1) SHUKLA
2) PADMA
3) KAPOT
4) NEEL
5) KRISHNA
6) TEJO | | | | | |
