It is with great pride and pleasure, we report to you that one of our young Jain Professional and Jain eLibrary committee member, Shri Sahil S. Shah, decided to renounce the worldly life and materialistic possessions on December 2, 2012 at the foot hill of mount Girnar, Junagadha, Gujarat India.
Born and brought up in Ahmedabad, Sahil completed his Bachelor in Engineering (Electronics & Communications) in 2002, from L D Engineering College, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad – India.
He came to the USA in 2002 and obtained a Masters in Engineering (VLSI) at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2004.
He worked 7 years as an Engineer at Nvidia Corporation from 2004 to 2010 in Santa Clara, California USA.
He moved back to India permanently in December 2010 and continued to work with the same company in Bangalore until August 2011 and resigned to pursue the spiritual path.
About 4 years ago, during a visit to India, he met Gurudev Pujya Hemvallabhvijayji Maharaj Saheb (Pra-Shishya of Panyas Pravar Shri Chandrashekhar Maharaj Saheb of Tapovan) at Kandiwali, Mumbai. Since then he kept in-touch with him. For one year from August 2011 to August 2012, he stayed with him at Girnar Junagadh and then decided to renounce the worldly life.
I came to know Sahil in 2007 when he attended a two day Jain workshop conducted by me for young Jain professionals in the San Francisco Bay area. He is also a Pathashala teacher at the Milpitas California JCNC Jain Center. He loved the Jain eLibrary project and took the responsibility to categorize eBooks of the elibrary website. It was a very hard and difficult task to accomplish but he carefully reviewed each book (about 1600 books at that time) of the eLibrary and classified them.
It was a great surprise to me when I received an e-mail from him indicating that he is going to renounce the worldly life on December 2, 2012 at Mount Girnar Junagadh India. He is 31 years old. In his email, he indicates:
"Renouncing the worldly life and materialistic possessions, I will walk the path of my inner calling and will seek my purest self through Sanyam Marg (ascetic practice), a path that has seen the foot prints of infinite Tirthankars.
With the blessings of my Gurudev Param Pujya Hemvallabhvijayji M.S. (Pra Shishya of Panyas Pravar Shri Chandrashekhar M.S.), I will try to move closer to the ultimate goal of human life and will seek oneness with the supreme soul.
Born and brought up in Ahmedabad, India, I traveled to the USA to pursue higher education and the quintessential American dream.
Little did I know that the cosmic orders had other plans. It was with the grace of Adinath Prabhu at the Milpitas Temple, through Swädhyäy and Satsanga with "Kalyan Mitras" at JCNC, an inner voice beckoned to choose the life of real happiness, the life of renunciation.
I will remain indebted to the Jain Center of Northern California, the Swadhyay (religious study) group of JCNC, the numerous scholars, Veer Sainiks and revered Shravaks/Shravikas of JCNC who were instrumental in making this possible and helped sow the seeds of Vairagya/ detachment in me.
I request and seek blessings from each one of you on this pious occasion.”
Jai Girnar
Jai Neminath
--Sahil”
Sahil’s Diksha program is going to be held in India in Ahmedabad from November 25 to 28, 2012 and at Girnar in Junagadha from November 29, 2012 to December 2, 2012. We request the Jain community of North America to attend this function if any of you are in India during this time. This will be one of the life time opportunities you may have. The program schedule is attached at the end of this e-mail.
We wish him great success in his higher spiritual quest and seek inspiration from him for our spiritual upliftment.
Regards,
Pravin K Shah
Jaina Education Committee
Jain eLibrary Project (www.jainelibrary.org)
Raleigh, NC USA
jainaedu@gmail.com
919 859 4994 Home, 919 889 1900 Cell
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