HereNow4U - Living Jainism Tour 2006 - 07.05 Jaipur (5) Professor Gelra

27 November 2006, 15:30 – 18:00

It was our great pleasure to meet professor Gelra this afternoon in Jaipur; he in spite of his straight schedule had invited us to visit him at home. We had the impression that the whole universe had shrunken into his living room; such were the talks we had. No wonder, his ability to express his thoughts in a lecture like way, made clear that he was involved with education during his whole life. One also could say that east and west met for a procreate exchange of thoughts. He has realised not only in his books, but most of all, rare enough, personally, what is meant by building a ‘spiritual cum scientific personality’. We had never met a person like him before.

17 years ago, he was the founding vice-chancellor of JVBI Ladnun, and still feels very close to his institution. He received many medals and awards; in October 2006 Anuvrat Award in the auspicious presence of H.H. Acharya Mahaprajnaji at Hisar, Hariyana, and in 20007 Kunda-Kunda Jnana Pitha Award at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, to name the last two only.

He followed invitations to lecture in Asia and Europe, untiringly responding to the queries of contemporary young people. In 1986, he was in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, for two months, where he interacted closely with professor Klaus Bruhn, then head of Indology department of Berlin Free University and renowned scholar of Jinism. He still remembers some German words from then, amazing enough after so many years of not using them. He would like to read those books in German language, still available at JVBI library, and hopes that Samanijis and JVBI students will do this one day. He holds past and present German scholars in high esteem for their result-oriented research work on Jinism.

We spoke about the lectures he gives to the young. For him it is important to make them understand both on scientific base, what is going on in the universe and in own life. He reported that students often asked him, how would we earn money for our livelihood, if we young persons start to become moral? His proposition is to find out one’s own weak point, as there is always something wrong in the character of a human being. To discover the own weak point, we have to note what is constantly striking our mind, when we go to sleep. We can discover it by noting daily one sentence on what occupied the mind before we went to sleep. Many points might be noted, but after some time, one point comes back repeatedly. Then we know where we have to be awake and what we have to conquer. Like this, strength of character is growing out of a weakness. If we keep this weakness in secret and do not work on it, others will become aware of it, corrupt us, and succeed. To conquer this weakness is living Anuvrat; talking Anuvrat is much easier, he added. When we start experiments like this to understand ourselves, life becomes simple, according to him.

A phone call interrupted this talk, his niece Mahima Bokariya from Surat – right, THIS efficient HereNow4U correspondent! – called her uncle and wanted to know our arrival details in Surat.

We then continued our talk with another science, mathematics. Fortunately, this is Aparigraha’s area of interest as well, and both exchanged vividly their thoughts on fourth dimension and hypercube. They laughed on the joke Aparigraha cited from mathematicians, “You never know when you travel into fourth dimension, in which condition you come back!” (details see Dimensional Views)

Fourth Dimension is the dimension of omniscience, said Aparigraha. It is providing facilities, we only dream about. As there is no difference between inside and outside,
four-dimensional surgery never has to open the body. Further, there is no need to ask if something is true or not; in the moment one thinks of it, it becomes realised immediately. This puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of those who dare to enter it. This is connecting fourth dimension with Anuvrat, Anuvrat’s essence is our RESPONSIBILITY for the life we are leading and the one ahead of us.

According to Aparigraha, therefore, discipline is predicament for entering fourth dimension, and meditation is the probate means, as we are not acting or thinking when we are meditating. Professor Gelra connected this thought with the Jain terms of motion and rest. He said when we have understood properly that motion and rest are belonging together; there is no difficulty to understand the terms of space, time, matter, and consciousness in Jain philosophy.

The discussion went on to light; velocity of light is a means of transportation into fourth dimension. Proper understanding of the complementary qualities of light as a wave and/or particle is necessary to approach. Science and spirituality is another complementary couple, which made professor Gelra laugh. If there is no complementary consciousness, we have to face alternations.

Professor Gelra mentioned existence and non-existence as another couple of complementarity in this world; one exists, the other does not exist. When one looks at the particle aspect of life, the wave aspect does not exist for those whose consciousness is three-dimensional. Aparigraha added that Leshya is the wave aspect, and Karma the particle aspect, to which Professor Gelra agreed and continued that it is the same with matter and anti-matter, they come together, but scientists do not know how to convert matter/anti-matter the peaceful way into energy.

Two opposites exist always together, but three-dimensional consciousness perceives only one of it and ignores the other. Happiness never comes without unhappiness, but in one dimension, they are separated, whereas in another they coexist. We actually do not change dimension, but only change direction, as dimensional consciousness is not very common, although every dimension defines its underlying conditions, limitations, and potentials.

Tea was drunk, snacks eaten, we could have discussed for even weeks. But it was time to go for dinner, and we took farewell, but did and will not forget this universe of spirit in professor Gelra’s living room in Jaipur.