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“I dedicate my ‘The Anuvrat Movement: Theory and Practice’ thesis to the founder of the Anuvrat Movement, the late Acharya Tulsi (1914-1997) of the Jain Svetambar Terapanth tradition on his birth centenary (2014).”
– Shivani Bothra,
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“Acharya Tulsi was disenchanted by human psyche rooted in selfishness, over-competitiveness, over-consumerism, and maximization of profits by wrong means. Such conditions in post-independence India were the immediate inspiration for the emergence of the Anuvrat Movement.”
– Aloke Roy (August 7, 2012)
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“Gurudev Tulsi prescribed some code of conduct, which was most non-sectarian. The aim of Anuvrat was to make human being better than what he is.”
– Mitesh Gajwani (May 11, 2012)
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“The Anuvrat movement is a social extension of an ancient spiritual tradition going back to Mahavira.”
-Dayananda Bhargava, Sanskrit Professor and Vedanta Scholar (July 18, 2012)
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“He (Tulsi) founded the Anuvrat Movement dedicated to raising the moral tone of Indian public and commercial life by taking Jainism beyond the Jains, which was to become the best known Terapanthi enterprise in India.”
-Paul Dundas, Jain Scholar. The Jains, 2Nd Edition Pg. 223 (Routledge, 2002)
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“India cannot be united religiously: however, it can stand united politically and secularly – through Anuvrat Movement.”
-Domenic Marbaniang, Historian. Perspective on Indian Secularism Page 6, published 2009
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“I desired to meet (Mahatma) Gandhi, but my exposure and journey was limited to the Bikaner District. Nevertheless, we met each other through our writings. Gandhi read and commented extensively on my two books: A Message of Peace for the Unrest World and Ahimsa. In the end Gandhi wrote: How good it be, if the world followed this saint’s ideas and theories (of Anuvrat).”
-Acharya Tulsi, Anuvrat Andolan Ki Pristhbhoomi (New Delhi: Anuvrat Mahasamiti, Pg.5 2012)
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”Acharya Tulsi sought to give behavioral aspect to religion. According to him, people maintain strong faith towards their religion, but often there is a gap in their theory and practice. He unraveled three fundamental aspects of a religion: First religion is ritualistic and limited to a sacred space like temple, church, synagogue, or a monastery where people offer prayer or worship. Secondly, religion is ethical, which guides one to distinguish between right and wrong deeds. Thirdly, religion is spiritual which leads a practitioner to raise his consciousness to lead a pure life. The Anuvrat Movement does not interfere with any ritualistic practice. However, it only seeks to inspire people to adopt ethical values like restrain from telling lies, cheating people, violence etc. to lead a spiritual life.”
-Sadhvi Pramuukhashri, The head nun of the Terapanth (May 26,2012)
(To be continued….)
The first article (The South Asian Times dated December 25-31,2021) extracted from the thesis ‘THE ANUVRAT MOVEMENT: THEORY AND PRACTICE’ submitted by Shivani Bothra at the Florida International University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies described how to incorporate spirituality into a secular movement by employing self-restraint which is a philosophical ideal behind the Anuvrat Movement. This is the fourth article from the thesis and the 50th article in the Anuvrat series. You may submit your article to [email protected] Article should be around 500 words.
People Also Ask…
What is so special about Jain Temple in Central Virginia?
The Jain Society of Central Virginia takes credit for being the first-ever Shikharbandhi Temple of Tirthankara Shri Shankheshvar Parshvanath in North America. The stand-alone temple is in Richmond, the capital of Virginia state. A magnificent temple with marvelous marble walls, majestic pillars, and mesmerizing carvings it was completed in less than three years with a membership of fewer than 100 families, a spectacular achievement by a Jain center in North America.
In India, the Shankheshvar Parshavnath Temple has undergone reconstructions/
