28.10.2018 ►JAINA ►Newsletter

Jai Jinendra!

On 22nd October 2018, delegations of Jains met the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Shri Ragubar Das. After due deliberation and representation, the state government has rightly taken their first step by issuing an official memorandum accepting the Hill as world’s holiest place and has shown commitment to maintaining the sanctity of the Hill. Read the Government Memorandum and Press release by Save Shikharji & JYOT below.

After successful Shikharji series recently published in JAINA Newsletters, we are here with publishing Girnar stories and videos. Each week, we will learn a short story about Girnar through an article and a video. The first story is given below.

The Jain Society of Greater Detroit began a new Scholarship and Loan Award program to support the college dreams of their society students from member families living in Michigan (USA) and Ontario (Canada). Winners are declared below.

Warm Regards,
Gunvant Shah
JAINA President
10-28-2018

Save Shikharji, an ongoing campaign to get the pious Shikharji Hill declared as ‘Place of Worship’ has succeeded in moving a step towards its success.

On 22nd October 2018, delegations of Jains including those of Save Shikharji campaign met the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Shri Ragubar Dasji, as arranged by Sunil Singhiji, member of National Minority Commission of India. After due deliberation and representation, the state government has rightly taken their first step by issuing an official memorandum accepting the Hill as world’s Holiest Place and has shown commitment to maintaining the sanctity of the Hill. We appreciate the government’s move and hope that the government will expedite the process to get declared the entire Hill as Place of Worship of Jains by way of official notification. In this faith, we put the movement on hold.

We acknowledge the blessings of Figurehead Monks of all denominations of Jain community and support of the World Jain Diaspora, International Jain Organizations, different Jain Sanghs of India and all those who have supported the cause in any way. It was only because of their blessings and support that this success was possible.

‘Save Shikharji’ is a united endeavor of Jains to protect the sanctity of the most sacred Jain Tirth ‘Shikharji’ also called as ‘ Parasnath Hill’. The campaign is organized by ‘Jyot’, a non-profit organization, driven under the auspicious guidance of Jain Acharya Shrimad Vijay Yugbhishan Suriji (Pandit Maharaj).

Issued by "Save Shikharji and JYOT"

We will witness the power of this pious land of tirthankars, GIRNAR, through these short stories every week. Infinite souls have been transformed at this miraculous mountain of Girnar.

Story #1. Durgandha

There was a beautiful town name Shripur, which was like an ornament for mother nature. Therein lived a Kshatriya named Pruthu. His wife was called Chandramukhi. But just as the white moon has stains, Chandramukhi unfortunately gave birth to a girl named Durgandha, whose body would naturally stink of an obnoxious odor. Pruthu was in search for a compatible match for his daughter, but all his efforts seemed to go in vain as no one could bear the smell Durgandha emitted. After persistently searching for a partner, Durgadha was married to Somdev. Somdev was also highly troubled by continuous odor emitted by Durgandha’s body and once secretly walked out on her in the middle of the night, leaving her alone. Unfortunately, Durgandha was not only ridiculed by her husband but was also rejected and condemned by her parents and relatives.

Please click here to Read More.

Every month, the Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston hosts a unique opportunity to learn about a new faith; this month it was Jainism. On October 20, 2018, Young Jain Professionals (YJP) and the Jain Society of Houston hosted the Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston in a unique interfaith opportunity to discuss Jainism in North America.

This year, the Jain Society of Greater Detroit (JSGD, www.jsgd.org) began a new Scholarship and Loan Award program to support the college dreams of our society students from member families living in Michigan (USA) and Ontario (Canada). Following are the two programs.

1. U.S. College Education Loan Program is to assist students during their college studies through an interest-free loan. Each selected student will receive a total loan amount of $5,000 over three years: $2,000 for the first and second year and $1,000 for the third year of their undergraduate studies. By tradition, the recipient of this award will remain anonymous. This year JSGD has awarded one student loan under this program.

2. U.S. College Education Scholarship Program will assist students pursuing undergraduate college studies. Any full-time undergraduate student in their first, second, third or fourth year can apply. We are proud of our recipients and the uniqueness of our students. The distribution of awards honors eight young students. A total of six scholarships were awarded based on merit, and two scholarships were awarded based on financial need.

The students won on merit-based are (pictures from left); Utsav Lathia, Chintan Maheshwari, Kush Madhani, Riya Shah, Mihir Zaveri, and Sonia Petrucci. Two more JSGD youth Shilpi Shah and Rishab Jain were also awarded the “Special Award". The Society has also awarded one student loan under this new program.

On October 6, 2018, Opening Keynote spoke Rahul Kapoor Jain spoke to YJP Conference attendees with a vision and purpose to help people across the world to ignite their inner powers and achieve results that matter. Rahul Jain is an acclaimed Motivational Speaker who employs his signature style - a combination of high energy levels, a willingness to reinvent and an enviable presence of mind to impart difficult lessons in the most palatable manner.

A 1: In Swadhyay Tapa one must study, teach and reflect deeply on such sacred books as to inspire one to attain self‑realization and enable one to save one’s soul from getting lost in the entanglements of the social life.

A 2: Dhyan Tapa means concentrating the mind on the real nature of the soul.