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Showing posts from October 16, 2007

099, Virchand Gandhi sent a shipload of wheat and Rs. 40,000 whereas Vivekananda sent clippings

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Late Virchand Gandhi was a contemporary of Swami Vivekananda. He represented Jainism, attending the World Congress of Religions 1893, Chicago. He too extensively toured U.S. giving lectures about the tenets of Jainism. Vivekananda blamed Ramanuja and Shankaracharya as pedantics because they have not wept for the poor, whereas he wept for poor. But unlike Vivekananda, Virchand Gandhi was a practical person. When Virchand Gandhi heard the news of severe drought of India in 1896 while he was in America, he at once established a Relief Committee under the Presidentship of Mr. C.C. Boney the President of Parliament of Religions, himself being the secretary. He sent a shipload of foodgrains and Rs. 40,000 as cash as a relief measure for the suffering people in India ... This is a world of propaganda and publicity. Saint or no saint, after a person's death, there should be somebody behind to perpetuate memory by celebrating birthdays, mahasamadhi days, write biographies and