Jaina Education ►Paryushana News Letter 2014

Federation of Jain Associations in North America
JAINA Education Committee

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For the upcoming occasion of Paryushan Parva and Das Laxan Parva, we sincerely request for forgiveness if we may have hurt your feelings by thoughts, words or actions, knowingly or unknowingly.

MICHCHHAMI DUKKADDAM

Sad demise of Shri Pratapbhai Bhogilal Shah

Jaina Education Committee deeply mourns the sad demise of our very prominent Jain community leader, and great Industrialist, Shri Pratpbhai Bhgilal Shah and conveys their deep sense of sorrow.

He passed away on August 8, 2014 - 3:30 AM Mumbai, India time (today).  He was a Chairman of Batliboi Ltd., Board of Director for Automotive Axles Ltd.  He was the president of Atma Vallabh Jain Smarak of Delhi and Trustee of Jain academy Trust.  He was awarded “Great Mark of Honour & Officer’s Cross Award by the Austrian Government.

He was the one of the early key supporters of Jain eLibrary project. In 2009, when we had launched eLibrary website, he provided the complete set of Jain literature published by Shri Mahavir Jain Vidyalay, Mumbai and Shri Bhogilal Laherchand Institute, Delhi.  He also supported JAINA Interfaith activity and Shri V. R. Gandhi’s memorial activity.

May Shri Pratapbhai Bhogilal Shah’s great soul rest in eternal peace.

__________________________

Pravin K and Arti Shah
Members of Jaina Education Committee and
Members of Jain eLibrary Project
Members of JAB committee

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Jaina Education and eLibrary Activity Report - August 2014

It has been several months passed by for Jaina Education and Jain eLibrary activity status report. During this time we have completed YJA-JAB activity and added high resolution pdf files to the eLibrary website of the books that we had scanned in the past 5 years. 

I will be travelling to UK, Singapore, and India for one month starting from August 15, 2014.  Since during Paryushana I will not be in USA,  I will not be able to communicate with you in time.  Please use e-mail address for any communication.

Jain eLibrary Literature of Paryushana and Das Lakshana Parva

The Jain eLibrary website (www.jainelibrary.org) contains more than 14000 books, Articles, and few audio ritual files.  In 5 years, more than 28,000 people have registered to use Jain elibrary and downloaded more than 300,000 Books and Articles.  The total number of visitors exceeded 1,000,000.

In order to provide some assistance to the Jain community during Paryushan and Das Laxan Parva celebration, we have searched the entire database for the following information:

Paryushan Parva
Das Lakshana Parva
Samvatsari Day
Kalpasutra
Pratikraman
Vidhi

The copy of the search result is attached with this email in xls file format. It contains 6 sheets. This will help you to download the needed information easily.

We have various pratikraman information for almost all different sects of Jainism such as Swetambar, Sthanakvasi, Terapanthi, Shrimad, Kanjiswami, and Dada Bhagwan.

We have audio (mp3) files of daily pratikramans and Samvatsari pratikramans of some traditions. 

For our English speaking youth and adults, we have also English pratikraman in text as well as in audio files.

YJA-JAB (Jain Academic Bowl) Program at the YJA Convention - Follow-up

YJA-JAB Youth Committee Members are:

Priyal Gandhi    Washington DC
Anish Doshi      Chicago
Anjali Doshi      Chicago
Chintav Shah     NJ
Siddharth Shah             Houston

There were about 50 youth registered for the JAB competition at the YJA convention.  The JAB youth committee selected the top 16 participants from online test and prepared 4 teams.  These teams played semi-final and final games at the YJA convention and the following team won the first YJA-JAB competition.  

Winning Team Name - Jain Jewels

Team members -

Akhil Ajmera (MD)
Parshva Vakharia (NJ)
Saagar Shah (NJ)
Vishwa Shah (FL)

We are very thankful to our youth for all their efforts and dedication to the successfully completing this project at the YJA convention.

Jaina Education Book Distribution Activity at the YJA Convention:

This year more than 750 youth attended the convention.  In this convention, Jaina Education committee distributed the following books to the attendees at free of charge.

• Jainism 101 - Reverence for Life (Cost - $1.00)
• The Book of Compassion (Collection of Articles) (Cost - $1.00)
• English Pratikraman for Youth (Cost - $1.00)
• Essence of World Religions (Cost - $1.00)
• Jain Puja Book in English (New Publication) (Ashtaprakari puja, Shanti Kalash, Dreams) (Cost - $1.00)
• Sutra Book in English - Samayik, Chaitya Vandan, Pratikraman Sutras (New Publication) - (Cost - $2.00)
  

You can view the pdf file of the above books at the following link of the Jain eLibrary Website

http://www.jainlibrary.org/jaina_edu_books.php  (Sr No 000201, 000221, 000241, 000211, 000247, and 000249 respectively)

The total cost of distribution was about $5000.00.  We are very thankful to the sponsors of this activity.

Request to all Pathashala Coordinators

Please order your Pathashala books requirements as soon as possible.  Now it takes about one month before you get your books.  All your book orders require to be paid by credit card and we will not ship the book parcels to the Jain society temple address. 

Use the following link to order your books.  Your cooperation is appreciated.

http://www.jainlibrary.org/shopping/select_destination.php

Jaina Education Activities at the upcoming JAINA Convention 2015 at Atlanta GA:

List of activities:

• JAINA-JAB (Jain Academic Bowl) Competition -  Last JAINA convention, we had 16 teams participated from the various Jain centers.
• Pathshala Teachers' conference - 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on the registration day.
• Jain Workshop by Pathashala Teachers– During the convention, various teachers from different centers will present various subjects of Jainism during the convention for convention attendees.. 
• Jaina Education Pathashala Books distribution (sale) booth. 

Sampurnaben Shah - Atlanta Pathashala teacher and coordinator will be the prime local coordinator for the above activities for the next JAINA convention of 2015.

JAB Manual Updates

The current JAB manual was frozen for any updates until YJA convention.  Now we will accept changes, suggestions and recommendations until September 7, 2014.  JAB Manual committee will review all such inputs and finalize the Manual for JAINA JAB competition activity.

You can download Word and pdf file of the current version of the JAB Manual from the following link of Jain eLibrary Website

http://www.jainlibrary.org/book.php?file=000021

Please use word file with track changes on, to submit your changes and recommendations.

The final version of the JAB Manual will be printed by October 2014 and printed manual will be made available via Jaina education material shopping Cart.  This way more centers and youth can participate in the JAB program.

Meghaben Doshi (Pathashala coordinator of Washington DC Jain Society - ) will prepare the final version after the approval of the changes by the Committee members.

JAINA-JAB competition Administrative Committee of 2015

Anish Doshi and Anjali Doshi of Chicago were the YJA JAB 2014 administrative committee members.  They would like to continue to be the part of the Administrative Committee of JAINA JAB 2015 program.  Our objective is that JAINA JAB 2015 competition program should totally run by our youth as done in YJA JAB 2014.

We are very proud of our youth for volunteering their time for such activity.  We are very confident that they will do great job of administering the JAINA JAB program activity in the next convention.

Health News: Cancer - A Shocking Truth!

This 8-minute video explains how cancer is caused and how it grows.  Also it explains, how it be prevented easily.

http://www.redefineyourreality.com/what-is-cancer.htm

Please do listen to it carefully.  I watched it and I am in full agreement with his basic explanation and prevention technique.

My Trip to UK, Singapore, and India

I will be travelling from August 15 for one month as follows:

• London UK - August 15 to 17, 2014
• Mumbai - August 18 to 20, 2014
• Singapore - August 21 to September 1, 2014
• Ahmedabad  - September 1 to 16, 2014