Dr Harshad Sanghrajka, Institute’s Director visited Nairobi in March 2012 at the invitation of the Visa Oshwal Community of Nairobi (VOC) to deliver a course on Jainism. This was a follow up tour on the highly successful tour to Nairobi in August 2011.
The course, Foundation in Jain Studies, developed by the Institute and delivered successfully in the UK, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia in last few years. . The course can be delivered in 10 sessions of 2 hours each and VOC announced it in Kenya to run from 5th March to 15th March at the excellent facility at the OSHWAL CENTRE in Nairobi.
Harshadbhai has established such a reputation in Nairobi, that prior to his arrival over 300 people had already registered for the course – that number finally reached 458 by the end. The number rose to 512 when counting people attending the course but not registered.
The course was run from 10.00 to 12.00 in Gujarati and 20.00 to 22.00 in English and approximately 500 people attended in total. Considering that only those who had attended 7 or more unique sessions were given IOJ certificates, 337 attendees qualified.
So good was the enthusiasm in Nairobi to study Jainism that about 80 people attended a session on TATTVARTHA SUTRA at 6.30 in the morning. The discussions were at such high scholarly levels that only the first two chapters on JIVA were covered in detail. Chapter 3 and 5 were summarised in the short time available after the first two chapters were completed.
Not to be left out, the elderly population attended the afternoon sessions from 3.00 to 4.30 in Gujarati. This time was utilised to sing and discuss the meanings of several JAIN STAVANS:
1. Punya Prakash nu Stavan [10 sections] 2. Barasanuvekkha [12 Bhavanas] 3. 4 Bhavanas from Maitri Bhavanu pavitra zaranu
With the growing awareness of Jain philosophy, a strong demand exists from both the younger and the older generations of the Jain community worldwide to learn more about this wonderful and magnificent religion, unfortunately Jain community does not have sufficient resources to meet this demand. With that view in mind, the Institute is developing teams that could not only develop courses that would suit particular needs but also be able to deliver such courses both in the UK and abroad.