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• Jains have contributed immensely in the education of India right from day one through their monasteries distributed across the country.
• The family is the first school and nucelus for education in India.
• In the primitive India, father and mother were the basic teachers of their children.
• Jains also accepted the family concept which prevailed earlier the rise of the Jain religion and Jain philosophy.
• Jains also focussed and developed the family based system of education not only of Jain religious values but other aspects of life social, cultural, business and others.
• Grammar and correct speech and languageand communication was taught at home.
• Their monastries continued to impart instructions and lectures and education on religious and secular values.
• In the monasteries, the curricula included  instructions in religion, literature, arts and physical cultures.
• The Jain monastries admitted the students of all castes.
• Teachers were of two kinds : teaching religous values and other teachers teaching secular values.
• The teachers/monkds in the Jain monasteries were required to study not less than three hours to upgrade and educate and evolve themselves.
• Intermonasteries debates and sharing thoughts were encouraged.
• In the Jain monastries library, the books, scripts relating religion, philosophy, astronomy, logic and arthmetic could be found.
• Youths of mercantile communities were admitted and trained.
• Rulers of ancient India competed with each other in honouring Tirthankars for their various kinds of contribution including that of the education.

to be continued.

by Dr B M Sharma

World's 1st ever Jain Radio Channel on the Internet JINVANI

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Just wanted to share this with you...

1st ever Jain radio channel - JINVANI (www.JainMediaLive.Com) on the Internet that will broadcast 24x7. Our aim is to relay various programs such as Abhishek, Pooja, Lecture (Pravachan), Bhakti, Aarti, Samayik, Pratikraman etc. Throughout the day. Every days program schedule will be published at least one week in advance. We hope that Jain radio channel will allow you to stay in touch with Jain teachings in todays busy world.

We request your support in spreading this message to your local Jain community members through local forums, via e-mail or newsletter and any other possible medium. Please take a moment to forward this message to all your Jain friends and relatives.

To learn more about Jain radio channel - JINVANI, please visit the website at www.JainMediaLive.Com

Jai Jinendra

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Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other - it doesn't matter who it is - and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other. ~ Mother Teresa

WONDERFUL Mathematics ( Love Of GOD)

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

Now, take a look at this... 101% From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?

We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%. How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these questions:

If:  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z  is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If:      H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K = 8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%

And:  K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E = 11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%

But:  A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E = 1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%

Then, look how far the love of God will take you:  

 

L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D = 12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

It's up to you if you share this with your friends & loved ones just the way I did..

Live & Let Live ~ Teachings of Lord Mahavir

If we talk about the teachings and philosophy of Mahavir's we will see that it is the spiritual power and moral grandeur of his teachings, which impressed the masses.

He made religion simple and natural, free from elaborate ritual complexities. His teachings reflected the popular impulse towards internal beauty and harmony of the soul.

He did not believed in grandeur and elaborate rituals. According to Mahavir, attachment to material objects is the primary cause of bondage and is also the cause for greed and jealousy. Jainism denies the existence of God as the creator, sustainer, and the moral governor of the world. According to the Jain dharma, the goal of life is to attain liberation.

The Jain scripture, Jain Agamas Siddhantas, preaches the doctrine of Ahimsa or non-violence. According to this doctrine, all objects have a soul, and should not be hurt or killed. His main teachings involves that it was the greatest sin to cause injury to creatures, and that it was the greatest virtue to renounce worldly possessions and practice strict asceticism.

His message of nonviolence (Ahimsa), truth (Satya), non-stealing (Achaurya), celibacy (Brahma-charya), and non-possession (Aparigraha) is full of universal compassion.

Mahavir was quite successful in eradicating from human intellect the conception of God as creator, protector, and destroyer. He also denounced the worship of gods and goddesses as a means of salvation. He taught the idea of supremacy of human life and stressed the importance of the positive attitude of life.

Lord Mahavir also preached the gospel of universal love, emphasizing that all living beings, irrespective of their size, shape, and form how spiritually developed or under-developed, are equal and we should love and respect them.

Every day Jains bow their heads and say their universal prayer, the Navkar-mantra. All good work and events start with this prayer of salutation and worship.

Pray for All

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I have always asked myself, "What am praying for?" Am I praying for myself?" I would, of course, pray for people who were facing calamities. I prayed for conflicts to be resolved. One day... my guru warned us "Never pray with a specific request. Praise the divine and seek general guidance and the strength to endure the difficulties of life." says Mini Krishnan.

As I think on theses lines, thought of sharing some thoughts on Prayers for soul search:

• The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise. -A. Maclare

• Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.~ Mahatma Gandhi
  

• Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.~ Mahatma Gandhi
  

• Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow. ~ Benjamin Franklin

• MAHATMA GANDHI, one of the busiest and most famous men in the world, used to set aside Monday as a Day of Silence. He needed the stillness, he said, in order to rest his vocal cords and to promote inner harmony in his soul amid the turmoil of life around him. I wonder what power would be released if all Christians devoted one day a week to listening to the voice of God to discern His coded message for our lives.. The Counsellor can only lead us if we receive His voice.~ Paul Brand in "In His Image" page 211

• God warms his hands at man's heart when he prays.~ John Masefield

• More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.~ Mother Teresa
  

• Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other's hearts in prayer.~ Charles Finney

• In worship, God imparts himself to us.~ C.S.Lewis

• God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil....~ E.M.Bounds

• It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone.~ Hudson Taylor

• The great people of the earth today are the people who pray, (not) those who talk about prayer...but I mean those who take time and pray.~ S.D.Gordon

• Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer.~ Martin Luther

• Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.~ Oswald Chambers

• Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.~ J. Sidlow Baxter

• The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing; but it is the chief thing. The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray.~ S.D. Gordon

• All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen; and when I don't pray, they don't happen.~ Dan Hayes

• Practice in life whatever you pray for, and God will give it to you more abundantly. -Pusey

• Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.~Phillips Brooks

• Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.~Socrates

• All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.~ Abraham Lincoln

• Prayer is meaningless if it is not out of alertness. And a man of alertness need not have any prayer - alertness is enough unto itself.~ Osho

• Whole of life has to be your temple. Work has to be your worship. Love has to be your prayer. This very body the Buddha, this is lotus paradise.~ Osho
  

I firmly believe in Prayers for All. I invite you to share your thoughts on Prayers!!!

Welcome 2009!

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• You need some thing when you are incomplete! you do not need anything when you are complete! "No desires" is the sign of all Attainments!!!

• If you keep waiting for just the right time, you will never begin. Begin from where you are, with what you have. It's life.

• A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with bricks that other throws at him.

• Out of the same piece of paper, you can make a book, ticket, boat or plane! Your destiny is not what you get, but what you make out of what you have.
  

Take charge of your life

Image via WikipediaWhenever things don't happen the way you want them to, there is a temptation to name it destiny. This is how you deal with failure; you are consoling yourself. Whatever situations you are living in, to be human means that you can mould situations the way you want them.

But today, most people in the world are moulded by the situations in which they exist. That is simply because they exist in reaction to the situations they are placed in.

So their question will be, "Why was I placed in such a situation? Is it my bad luck, is it my destiny?" Everything that you know now as "myself" is just an accumulation. Your body is just an accumulation of food. What you call "my mind" is an accumulation of impressions that you have gathered through the five senses. What you accumulate can be yours; it can never be you. What is you is yet to come into your experience; it is in an unconscious state.

You are not even 100 per cent conscious of what you have accumulated. You are trying to live your life through what you have gathered, not through who you are.

You have acquired certain tendencies depending upon the type of impressions you have gathered. This can be changed. Irrespective of your current tendencies, your past experience of life, your genetics, irrespective of who your parents were, where you were born, where you grew up, if you do certain things with yourself, you can change this.

You can completely rewire yourself in 24 hours' time. A century ago, many things that people believed to be destiny or God's will, like diseases, infections and death are today in our hands because we have taken charge of certain things. What we call technology today is just this: Within the laws of nature, everything on the outside that can be taken charge of, we will take charge of someday.

As there is an outer technology, there is an inner technology or inner engineering. Everything that this life is, is naturally happening to a certain law. If you know what the nature of life within you is, you can completely take charge of the way it happens. Then would you let any unpleasantness happen to you?

Unpleasantness is happening to you in the form of anger, fear, anxiety and stress because your basic faculties — your body, mind, emotions and your life energies — are doing their own thing as if they don't belong to you.

It doesn't matter who you are. Life doesn't work for you unless you do the right things. Existence is not judgmental. Good, bad, all these judgments are essentially human and socially conditioned. Every society has its own idea of what is good and bad, but existence is treating all of us the same way. Who-ever is receptive right now gets the bounty of life. The whole aspect of yoga is to make you receptive.

If your experience of life trans-cends the limitations of the physi-cal, you become available to Grace. Suddenly you function like magic. Other people may think you are magic but you know you are just beginning to become receptive to a different dimension of life. And for everybody, this possibility is wide open.

When it comes to outside realities, all of us are differently capable. What you can do, somebody else cannot do; what someone else can do, you cannot do. But when it comes to inner possibilities, every human being is equally capable. You are not any less capable than a Buddha or a Jesus or anybody for that matter. All of us have the same inner capabilities, unfortunately never explored, never accessed.

by SADHGURU @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lifestyle/Spirituality/Take_charge_of_your_life/articleshow/3510241.cms

Liked this article, hence posting for your attention to think on!