Acharya Mahaprajna
The unique occasion of the Welfare Year! The great aim: Awakening of wisdom and creation of wholesome personalities. Many-dimensional means of achieving the goal - discourses, training and practice. Pre-determination of every subject to be taken up. A keen desire to understand and live spirituality and science together. The only problem: different levels of trainees. On one side there were people who did not know the ABC of spirituality and science, on the other side were diligent enquirers into the intricate secrets of spirituality. It seemed difficult to cater to the needs of both kinds of students at once. Again and again, the mind came up against the problem as to what kind of material should be put forth and how. The presentation of traditional values in a new perspective was as important as the relevance of perceiving new facts in a new light.
While studying logic, one read of the 'lamp on the threshold' and the 'stringed bead of a damru' (a leather-covered musical percussion instrument). The lamp on the sill radiated its light both within and without the room. The damru's one bead strikes at both ends to produce damru music. Similarly, a skilled orator can enthral both the common public and the learned, provided that they are receptive.
The first achievement of the Welfare Year is the evolution of a style of discourse which is neither too simple nor too much involved; which is not deficient in high-level philosophy, yet is not devoid of primary knowledge; which is at once transcendental and empirical. The credit for evolving such a method wholly belongs to Acharya Mahaprajna.
In fact, discourses delivered during the Welfare Year were all unique, incorporating within themselves the eternal and opportune truths. Considering that their utility would last beyond the Welfare Year, the Pragyaparva Celebrations Committee h. s decided to make available Mahaprajna's discourses to the public. Apna Darpan Apna Bimb [entitled in English, The Mirror Of The Self] is the fifth volume thereof.
Both to those who have listened to them and those who have not, these discourses, we believe, would continue to provide inspiration for attaining self-knowledge, opening the closed doors of their consciousness, filling them with light.
Jain Vishva Bharati Ladnun-341306
Ganadhipati Tulsi
