Purpose Principles Dedication Inspiration

Purpose

This site has been created to achieve two objectives:-

Make true Jain literature accessible.
Raise awareness of this literature.

In the process, we hope to contribute towards preserving the remnants of our literature.

Why? Because there is plenty of literature on the web about science and religion. There are lots of sites which offer different views on religions, including purpose, methods and consequences. There are also a number of sites on Jainism. However, we could not find much material to do with the Essence of Jainism which is understanding the difference between:-

the self and other objects;
my natural dispositions from unnatural dispositions.

This aspect of Jainism is rare in terms of availability (almost hidden!) as stated in Gatha 4 of Shree Samaysaar and we want to make people aware of its existence. We will have achieved our objective if, after examining the material, you question your belief of "one-ness" with the body and alien dispositions.

Principles

In this site we will attempt to present the original Jain texts faithfully WITHOUT creating any new literature. All the literature we reproduce will be:-

that written by true monks {such as Kundkund Acharya }
that written by those house-holders (such as Pandit Todarmalji, Shreemad Rajchandra) who had become Gnaanis (by understanding and experiencing their own nature called Samyakt Darshan [Right Faith]) and then written texts to assist others to achieve the same understanding
transcripts/audios/videos of Gnaani's lectures and also translations into modern languages

Introductory texts, to help gain a basic grounding in Jainism, written by others whose literary skills have been commended by Gnaanis (such as those written by authors in Gurudev Kanji Swami's presence) will also be presented here. These texts will be confined to presenting the basics of Jainism only. If you find a conflict ALWAYS rely on the the Gnaani's message.

If we should fail to live up to these principles, please let us know, without hesitation, on rajesh@AtmaDharma.com.

Dedication

The site is dedicated to the concept of "Bhed-Gnaan" (discriminative-knowledge). This is what we regard as the Essence of Jainism to achieve every soul's objective of happiness.

Whatever we have understood regarding "Bhed-Gnaan" has come from the five well-known people of the twentieth century that have understood and put into practise the Essence of Jainism. These five people are:-

Kanji Swami -popularly known as Gurudev (Some quotations, Picture)

Champaben (popularly known as BahenShree), Low resolution picture , High resolution picture

Nihalchandbhai Sogani, some quotations, Low resolution picture , High resolution picture

Lalchandbhai Amarchand Modi, some favourite verses and quotations, Samaysaar Gathas 373-382, Low resolution picture (10 sec), High resolution picture (1.5 min).

Shreemad Rajchandraji, some quotations, Pictures of Shreedmad Rajchandra composing Atma Siddhi Shastra, Shreemad Rajchandra in his twenties, Shreemad Rajchandra seated in Dhyan.

We are extremely grateful to these five Gnaanis for showing us that true understanding. Implementation of that understanding is within everyone's reach.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this site comes from my loving mother, Laxmiben Premchand Shah. My mother's quality of quiet and gentle perseverance for what is right and principled has been a source of inspiration for building AtmaDharma.com whenever we have encountered obstacles and were ready to give up.

Ever since I can remember, my mother was always reading Jain shastras and thinking about the tattvas. She knew that this was the only way out of the misery of sansaar......

When my mother was suffering from cancer and knew she was in her last days in this life, she told her five children that she had packed our inheritance into separate boxes for each of us.

What did each of these boxes contain? .... a set of Jain shastras ... the only inheritance worth giving ... one that would help each of us to make our own way out of the misery of sansaar.

My wife (Jyoti), and I (Rajesh), would like to share our inheritance with you ...