Mahesh Dhoundiyal- New Delhi
(No religion should harm the religious places, Gurus, scriptures, followers of any religion, but should respect each other – Dr. Indu Jain Rashtra Gaurav)
National-International Jain representative and founder of “Jindharma Rakshak” Dr. Indu Jain Rashtra Gaurav and nine-year-old child member Tatvam Jain represented Jainism in the Sarvadharma Prayer and Thought Seminar organized by Baha’i religion in Lotus Temple, Delhi. It is noteworthy that 40 years ago, ten women sacrificed their lives for the Bahai religion. In their memory, an interfaith prayer and a seminar on the topic ‘Our story is one’ was organized at the Lotus Temple. At this event, representatives of Jain, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, Jewish, Bahai, etc. religions read prayers and expressed their views.
Dr. Indu Jain read the Namokar Mahamantra in the Jain prayer and said there that ‘our story is one’ of the atrocities on religions for centuries. She said that even today in India, many temples like Girnar, Badrinath, Kedarnath, etc., ancient pilgrimage sites of Jainism, have been occupied by people of other religions. Even the Supreme Court has ordered that the followers of Jainism can worship the footprints of Tirthankara Neminath Bhagwan on Mount Girnar, but those who built the temple illegally on Mount Girnar, by pressurizing the government there, forced the followers of Jainism to worship the footprints of Tirthankara Neminath. Even on the day of Lord Neminath’s Nirvana Kalyanak, worship was not allowed and for the past few years, whenever the Jains go to Girnar mountain for darshan, the encroachers threaten them and many times, the Jains have been even attacked by the encroachers, but the administration and the government do not take any action against the people who oppress Jainism. There are not just two or three Jain temples but many such ancient temples where the idols of the Tirthankaras are visible, but even there, people of other religions have occupied them by changing the form of the idol and calling it their temple. Troubles keep coming up every day at the Guru-Tirths of Jainism, so just as when any religion is in danger, the people of Jainism support the people of that religion, similarly, to remove the encroachments on Jain pilgrimages, people of all religions should support Jainism.
Dr. Indu said that when the first Tirthankara of Jainism, Adinath, was a king, he taught Brahmi alphabets to his two daughters and that alphabet became famous as Brahmi script, from all the scripts were born and he taught numerology to his beautiful daughter, which led to the development of mathematics and our country was named Bharat after the name of Chakravarti Emperor Bharat, the eldest son of King Rishabhdev. The oldest inscription of the name Bharat in the Prakrit language and Brahmi script can be read in the Haathigumpha inscription of Udayagiri-Khandagiri. Explaining the principles of Ahimsa Paramo Dharma and Live and Let Live of Jainism, he said that no religion should harm the people of any religion and their religious places, gurus, scriptures, etc. and all religions should respect each other. He also talked about the important principles of Jainism and paid tribute to the ten brave women of the Baha’i religion. Tatvam Jain, a member of Jindharma Rakshak, also expressed the thoughts of Jainism in a very beautiful manner. Tatvam said that Jainism is a pure, great, spiritual, and completely theistic religion. The teachings of Jainism paved the way for self-welfare and world peace. According to Jainism, every soul has the power to become God. Every person is the creator of his destiny. A person becomes great not by birth but by his deeds. Today, for world peace, the basic principles of Jainism such as non-violence, truth, non-stealing, non-possession, anekant, syadvaad, etc. are necessary. In this era, from the first Tirthankara Bhagwan Rishabhdev to the last Tirthankara Bhagwan Mahavir paved the way for salvation by showing a new path to the people. It is our good wish that the whole world should adopt all these principles in life and achieve self-welfare. After his speech, Tatvam spoke about unity in diversity, the Panch Anuvrat principle through the poem ‘Tirthankara Mahavir said’. At the end of his speech, Tatvam said that today the whole world needs to fully adopt the principles of Lord Mahavira such as non-violence, non-possession, and pluralism, only then it is possible to establish the right to peace, unity, and equality in the world.
The audience from India and abroad praised the speech of the little boy Tatvam. It is worth mentioning that Dr. Indu is training Jain children to represent Jainism nationally and internationally through ‘Jindharma Rakshak’ so that Jain children can propagate Jainism as Jain representatives from childhood itself and even if they live in any area after growing up, their minds should always be dedicated to Jainism by becoming a Jindharma Rakshak.
The program was conducted by Carvel Tripathi. Many dignitaries from India and abroad like A.K. Merchant, Neelakshi, Maulana Shaheen, Acharya Satendra, Father Robbie, Jasvir, Hemchand Jain, Rakesh Jain, etc. were present at this event.
