Federation of Jain Associations in North America
JAINA Education Committee
YJA-JAB (Jain Academic Bowl) Program
Hats off to YJA-JAB team members for their very successful development and implementation of YJA-JAB online screen test and test program.
Our youth team has not only developed the online test program but also created 200 multiple choice questions using the current JAB manual without any adult help.
Initially test was given to the JAB manual team members (who are Pathshala teachers) and then it was given to YJA-JAB youth participants. All of us agree that the test questions created by our youth were very good and they cover fairly all the chapters of the JAB manual.
YJA-JAB Youth Team Members are:
Priyal Gandhi Washington DC
Anish Doshi
Anjali Doshi Chicago
Chintav Shah NJ
Siddharth Shah Houston
Special thanks to Siddharth Shah who did the significant amount of work.
Link for JAB Manual to download the pdf file
http://www.jainlibrary.org/book.php?file=000021
Support to YJA Convention of 2014 -
Jaina Education Committee is always very active in supporting YJA (Young Jains of America) convention since the beginning of YJA from 1994. It has attended every YJA convention and presented several papers at the convention. In this convention, the following presentations will be conducted by Jaina Education Committee:
1. English Pratikraman Ritual in the Morning
Hetali Lodaya (past YJA program coordinator) of the education committee will conduct English Pratikraman every morning during YJA convention.
2. Harmony of Religious Diversity
The presentation will highlight the similarities and philosophical differences of World’s major faiths.
3. Jain Universe
The presentation will summarize the Jain literature version of the universe and provide comparison with the present knowledge of the universe. Finally a discussion on why traditional Jains and ascetics at large still insist that the Earth is Flat not moving etc.
4. Jain Diet and Food - Holistic Approach to Spirituality, Health and Ecology
What does Jain food mean? Is it a vegetarian food that contains no root vegetables? Are our Jain scriptures defining such a narrow definition? The presentation will explain the proper role of Jain diet in our spiritual journey towards liberation.
5. Application of Jain Karma Philosophy in Daily Life
Jain karma philosophy is an inherently spiritual in nature; however, it is often misconstrued in a dogmatic fashion. When someone suffers, some Jains think that:
It is due to his karma and let him complete the suffering otherwise he will have to suffer in future again.
We should not involve in compassion and charity related work because if a person commits any sin after our help we will acquire bad karma and ultimately we will have to suffer.
We should help only those who are Jains and following only Jain principles of our sect otherwise we will acquire bad karma.
This type of interpretations result discrediting Jain Religion and unacceptable to Jain youths of North America. This short presentation reviews the practical aspect of Jain Karma philosophy and will try to provide proper role and purpose of Karma philosophy in Jain religion.
6. Q and A Presentation
This presentation delves into the brain storming and discussion on powerful and thought provoking questions that have no absolute answers. It includes the social and cultural perceptions as well as stereotypes and generalizations from both youth and adult’s perspective.
The discussion will provide insights into questions that are important to our youth in order to develop them spiritually, ethically, and socially in the western world.
All presentations (No 2 to 6) will be presented by Pravin K Shah, chairperson of the committee.
Sponsor/s needed
In every YJA convention, Jaina Education committee provides the following books to the 700 attendees at free of charge.
1. Jainism 101 - Reverence for Life (Cost - $1.00)
2. The Book of Compassion (Collection of Articles) (Cost - $1.00)
3. English Pratikraman for Youth (Cost - $1.00)
4. Essence of World Religions (Cost - $1.00)
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, 000231, and 000211)
Total cost including shipping charges is about $3500. Jaina Education committee has taken the responsibility to find the sponsor/s for the above amount.
Please contribute generously towards this noble cause. Please understand that we are contributing towards the education of our children. Any amount of your contribution will be greatly appreciated.
Please mail your contribution check as follows:
Jaina Education Committee
(Write in a memo space - YJA - Educational books)
Address - 509 Carriage Woods Circle, Raleigh NC 27607 USA
Tele - 919-859-4994
You can also contribute by credit card using the following link
http://www.jainlibrary.org/donation1.php
Publication of the Pratikraman Sutra Book in English (JES 941)
Last month we had announced the publication of the Pratikraman Sutra book and we had made soft copy of the book available from our website.
We are very proud to inform you that within 10 days of the announcement, more than 400 times the book is being downloaded from the website. In the past we had not experienced such an interest of any of our Jaina Education books.
The printed copy of the book will be available from India starting from May 15, 2014 and from USA by July 15, 2014. We will update the following Jaina education shopping cart link as soon as the book is available in India as well as in USA.
http://www.jainlibrary.org/shopping/select_destination.php
At present the soft copy of the book (pdf and docx format) is available from the following link of Jain eLibrary Website
Pdf file – http://www.jainlibrary.org/book.php?file=000249
Docx File - http://www.jainlibrary.org/book.php?file=000250
Please understand that all Jaina Education publications are meant for Jain children raised in North America.
Our main objective is to convey the basic Jain principles (which are non-sectarian) to our American born children. We have achieved good success in our approach. For the past several years 3000 to 4000 American born Jain youths and adults did Samvatsari Pratikraman using the English Pratikraman Book. Most of these youths had not done the traditional Pratikraman in the past. The traditional Jains may find some violations of their sectarian traditions in the Jaina Education Pathashala books.
You can download the softcopy of the English Pratikraman book from the following link:
Pdf file - http://www.jainlibrary.org/book.php?file=000241
We request our readers to use the material objectively and provide positive suggestions so that we can incorporate them into the future revisions of the material.
Pravin K. Shah
Jaina Education Committee
Jain eLibrary in-charge
919-859-4994