Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh
Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology
International Seminar on Yogashastra of Acharya Hemachandra & Homage to Late Muni Jambuvijay ji
organized by BLII, Delhi
on 18-19 December 2010
The Inaugural Function, of the two-day International Seminar on Yogashastra of Acharya Hemachandra & homage to Late Saint Muni Jambuvijayji, was held on 18th December 2010, in India International Centre, New Delhi. The sudden and sad demise of the illustrious Munishri, in road accident, left his devotees, followers, pupils, spread over the whole world, stunned. His departure from the world created a void in the academic world that cannot be fulfilled. The critical edition of Yogashastra of Hemachandra being his last work, BLII decided to organize this seminar as a mark of great respect to the departed soul.
Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao, M.P., Chairman, ICPR
Prof. K. R. Rao, the Chairman, Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), Dr. Godabrish Mishra, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Mr. S. K. Goel, Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Research (ICCR), the founder and its chief patron of the BLII Shri Pratap Bhogilal and Prof. Sagarmal Jain, a stalwart of the Jaina studies, graced the dais on this occasion by their benign presence.
Prof. G. Mishra, Member Secretary, ICPR lighting the Lamp & Mr. R. K. Jain, Secretary General, Vallabh Smara
Mr. S. K. Goel receives memento from Mr. N. P. Jain
The Chief Guest, Prof. K. R. Rao has pin-pointed the need to present the Yoga in a manner, comprehensible to the common people. He emphasized the need of spiritualizing the secularity rather than secularizing the spirituality. He told that a good English translation of Yogashastra of Acharya Hemachandra should be brought out. Mr. Goel, in his speech, spoken out that yoga has become an industry today. Our thrust should be to make yoga an instrument of bringing equilibrium between mind and body. Prof. Godabrish Misra gave a new connotation to ‘Yogah karmasu kaushalam’ as the right of knowledge in empirical existence. ‘Yogaksema vahamyaham’ to him stood for the well-being of body and mind.
Shri Pratap Bhogilal in his welcome speech highlighted that BLII should embark upon the researches in inter-religious faith. He also threw light on the establishment of BLII.
Prof. Jitendra B. Shah, Vice-Chairman, BLII, also the Convener of this Seminar, in his key note address, made an exhaustive survey regarding genesis and development of Jaina literature on Yoga. He incorporated in his scholarly speech the salient feature of the important works, written from the earliest period to the present day, in Prakrit, Sanskrit, Kannad, Hindi, Gujrati and English etc.
The function commenced with the chanting of Navakara mantra by Mrs. Deepshikha Jain. Mr. N. P. Jain, Vice-Chairman, BLII, introduced the dignitaries and distinguished participants, coming from different parts of India and abroad. Sri R. K. Jain, President of BLII, threw light on the activities of Vijay Vallabh Smarak. On this occasion a Souvenir was brought out which was released by the distinguished Guest on the dais.
All the sponsors and co-sponsors- Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Ministry of Culture, ICPR, Batliboi Ltd., Siddho Mal & Sons, Ratna Sagar Pvt. Ltd., Enkay (India) Rubber Co. Pvt. Ltd., Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Cosco India Pvt. Ltd., were felicitated in the function. Director, Dr. Balaji Ganorkar conducted the program. Deputy Vice-Chairman Shri V. K. Jain proposed the vote of thanks.
In addition to the valedictory function, the academic deliberations were spread over six sessions.
In the first session, Prof. Fuzinaga Shin, Dr. Jitendra B. Shah, Mr. Narendra Prakash Jain enlivened, rather sanctified the atmosphere with their memoirs on the sadhana, religions conduct, method of editing of Late Muni Jambuvijayji.
In the remaining sessions Dr. Fuzinaga Shin from Japan, explained cosmology in Yogashastra, Dr. Christopher K. Chapple, USA presented his paper on the five Jaina Yogas of Haribhadra, Prof. Sagarmal Jain, traced the sources of Yogashastra. Prof. Dharmchand Jain presented his paper on the Place of a Householder in Yogashastra, Prof. Kanti Mardia on Yogashastra, Kashayas and the tree of virtues, with the help of power point presentation. Dr. Falguni Zaveri, Mumbai, read her paper on “How person can achieve altered state of consciousness” and Dr. Kokila Shah, Mumbai on Equanimity:
The essence of Yoga in Yogashastra. Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, BLII analyzed the sources of extracts occurring in the auto-commentary of Yoga. Dr. Vijay Shankar Shukla highlighted the genesis of Yoga in historical and social perspective. Dr. Abhay Doshi, Mumbai, and Dr. D. N. Sharma, Ahmedabad, also read their papers.
The chief Guest at the Valedictory function was Padma Vibhushita Prof. Satyavrata Shastri (Former Vice-Chancellor, Jaganath Sanskrit University, Puri) and the other Guest of Honor was Mr. Muthusamy Varadarajan (Former Secretary Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India). The valedictory was presided by Prof. Ramanuja Devanathan (Registrar, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi). Prof. Gayachanran Tripathi, National Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla delivered the valedictory address. The report of proceedings was presented by Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh. Dr. Balaji Ganorkar, Director, BLII conducted the whole seminar and proposed the vote of thanks. The Lunch and Dinner was sponsored by Indian Council of Philosophical Research and Cosco India (Pvt. Ltd.), Delhi.