Dear Sadharmik brothers and sisters,
Jai Jinendra!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day, counting blessings, looking back at all great memories of joy and happiness that we all had togather, and pondering on lessons learned to spread more happiness around. Let us all pray for millions of souls who fell victim to act of violence and pray to our tirthankaras to enlighten every leaving soul to avoid the path of violence. May peace and compassion grow in ourselves and extend all around us.

JAINA Sadharmik Bhakti Fund committee is grateful for your generous support to this noble cause. With your donations, so far, we have raised approximately $540,000. JAINA has identified several credible and reputable non-profit organizations in India to help us distribute these funds effectively. Read the letter of Gratitude below.

Kartiki Purnima or Dev Diwali as popularly known will be celebrated on November 30th, 2020 at various Jain Centers with virtual Pat Darshan and Kartiki Purnima Kriya. Kartik Purnima also marks end of chaturmas. This day is celebrated as birthday of Krupaludev Shrimad Rajchandraji by various Centers worldwide.

Jain Center of Greater Boston is hosting a virtual International Symposium on Jainism and Mathmatics from 12th December 2020 to Monday, 14th December 2020. Joining and other details are mentioned below.

JAINA Academic Liaison Committee (ALC) invites you to a very informative presentation by Dr. Abhay Firodia on Saturday, November 28, 2020. He will present his plans, visions on the two initiatives along with their relevance to the activities of JAINA ALC. More details are given below.

As a part of survey for the Jain Digest February 2021 issue, Jain Digest committee wants to know about your favorite Jain Temple and it’s description. Your responses to this survey, will be published in the new section ‘Community Corner’, which will be added to Jain Digest beginning with the February 2021 issue. Tell us about your favorite Jain temple at the survey link given below.

Dr. Christopher Miller, Bhagwan Mallinath Assistant Professor of Jainism at Loyola Marymount University, has made an open-access course on Jain Studies. The lecture series is a comprehensive introduction to the Jain tradition and Jain Studies. Please find the 14-lecture series linked below.

Change can be temporary and transformation permanent. While change is driven from external influence to modify actions. Transformation is about modifying beliefs. Listen to Rahul Kapoor Jain speaking on what does it take to bring such constant Change within us that it becomes transformation. Watch the video below.

Sincerely,

Mahesh Wadher
JAINA President

Thanksgiving Day is the annual national holiday in the United States celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. On this day, we also take an opportunity to thank our family, friends, every soul that helped in our growth as a human being, and Jainism to show us a path of non-violence, non-possessiveness, and accepting multiplicity of viewpoints. JAINA is grateful to all Jain centers who hosted Thanksgiving prayer/jaap to pray for millions of souls who fell victim to act of violence on this day and hope their souls rest in peace. Let us decide to recite a prayer for a few seconds daily, before meals remembering how blessed we are for getting food, and may we keep our compassion alive towards each soul.

On behalf of JAINA, we extend our gratitude to you all. As we all know, the year 2020 has been tumultuous and difficult for everyone around the world. Many Jain Sadharmik families have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Two months ago, JAINA formed a Sadharmik Bhakti Fund committee to raise funds to help these families in need in India. We raised funds in a multitude of ways, and our biggest effort that helped bring in large donations was the Sheth Jagdusha drama performed and broadcasted virtually.

All of you responded to our appeal and supported this noble cause with your generous donations. So far, we have raised $540,000. With thorough research, we identified several credible and reputable non-profit organizations in India to help us distribute these funds effectively. These organizations include Samasta Mahajan Trust, JEET Trust, Jain Jagruti Trust, Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust, JM Financial Foundation,Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care (SRLC) and Shree Navkar Dham Charitable Trust.

With these funds, we have been able to provide financial support to thousands of families during the Diwali holidays. Each and every dollar sent to India has been used for this particular cause without any overhead expenses. This would not have been as successful as an endeavor without all of your help.

We would like to thank JAINA EC, the Sadharmik Bhakti fund group, and the core committee members, who include Dilipbhai Shah, Anopbhai Vora, Hareshbhai Shah, and Ashokbhai Savla.

Sincerely,

Mahesh Wadher President Federation of Jain Associations In North America (JAINA)

Dr. Jayesh Shah, Chairman, JAINA Sadharmik Bhakti fund Committee

Shrimad Rajchandraji
An introduction to His Life And Works.

As you are aware, we had to postpone the planned Symposium, which was supposed to take place in June 2020 at MIT in Boston. This planned symposium has generated remarkable interest and we have received a large number of high-quality abstracts and presentations. In order to continue our efforts and to promote and maintain interest in this subject, Jain Center of Greater Boston is planning a virtual symposium on Jainism and Mathematics. For more details please see the brochure and read the letter from JCGB.

Saturday, 12th December 2020 to Monday, 14th December 2020
From 7:30 PM to 10:45 PM (IST) ........All Three Days
From 9:00 AM to 12:15 PM (EST)........All Three Days

To join for the all 3-days Symposium, Click here .

Jain heritage and Jain studies.

Date: Saturday, November 28th, 2020.
Time: 7AM PST, 9AM CST, 10AM EST (all USA times) and 3PM (U.K time)

Please Join the Talk at
https://zoom.us/j/91590115364?pwd=K092MzYxMldYTURxQmo5dXBBRm1IZz09

Meeting ID: 915 9011 5364
Passcode: APT2811

During the presentation, Dr. Firodia will talk about:

• Building a mammoth, largest, and most modern state of the art Digital and Iconic museum of Jain philosophy, history, art and architecture, culture, and its relevance, near Pune, to enhance wellness in today’s world along with its interconnectedness with other Indian philosophical systems.
• Planning and implementing a quantum jump in the resources and capabilities of ISJS to enable it to meet the growing and critical needs of the Jain academic community.

He will present his plans, visions of the above two initiatives along with their relevance to the activities of JAINA ALC.

The Jain Digest Editorial Team is thankful to you for your enthusiastic participation in the survey they had conducted about the COVID-19 pandemic. Hope you were able to relate to the experiences shared by your fellow community members. The committee wishes you, your family, and friends good health and peace of mind in these turbulent times.

In the spirit of connecting our community members and share with each other, the committee is pleased to announce that a new section titled “Community Corner” will be added to Jain Digest beginning with the February 2021 issue. In this section, they will publish your responses to various surveys they plan to conduct. We are also exploring other ideas for content in this section.

For the February 2021 issue of Jain Digest, we want to know about your favorite Jain Temple!

Due to the Pandemic, many of us have not been able to go to the temple and do Darshan of Bhagwan in that pious atmosphere. At times like this, we miss the temple even more. So, let us find some solace by thinking about our temples.

Go back to your childhood and recall all the temples you have visited and tell us which temple you remember the most. It does not have to be any of our famous tirths. It can be any Jain temple that has made an impression on you. Provide a brief description of the temple and tell us why you chose it.

Please fill out a short form at https://bit.ly/JainDigest-TempleSurvey by Monday, December 14.

Dr. Christopher Miller, Bhagwan Mallinath Assistant Professor of Jainism at Loyola Marymount University, has made an exciting new online course in Jain Studies that was developed at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, USA. It is free and available all over the world 24x7.

The course is a comprehensive introduction to the Jain tradition and Jain Studies that will be interesting and useful for Jains who are interested in learning more about the philosophy and history of their tradition, students in Pathshala, and even non-Jains who would like to learn about Jain Dharma. This course offers something for everyone.

Here’s the first lecture on Introduction to Jain Studies. Please watch each of the 14 videos in this lecture series here.

"The greatest mistake of a soul is non-recognition of its real self and can only be corrected by recognizing itself".

- Bhagwan Mahavir