Sects Śvētāmbara, Sthānakavāsī | Died 22 April 1994, New Delhi | |
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Born 15 June 1926 ( 1926-06-15 ) | ||
Sushil Kumar (15 June 1926 – 22 April 1994) was a Jain teacher and monk (later Acharya). His primary ashram in North America is Siddhachalam, located in Blairstown, New Jersey was established in 1983. He was among the founding fathers of American Jainism.
He was born in Shikhopur, in modern day Haryana in India on June 15, 1926. At at the age of eight, he started living with Shri Chotelalji Maharaj, a Jain monk. When he was fifteen years' old, he formally renounced the life of a householder and became a Jain monk. He began to gain renown as a yogi and a repository of wisdom at an early age and came to be addressed as Guruji.
Although he was ordained as a monk in the Sthānakavāsī Jain tradition, he regarded himself to be non-sectarian.
Life
Sushil Kumar was born into a Brahmin household. As a Jain monk, he traveled on foot thousands of miles across the length and breath of India. He represented the Sthānakavāsī Jain tradition in the making of Saman Suttam, a compilation of Jain principles that was acceptable to all sects of Jainism. He discovered and mastered the secrets of sounds behind the Namokar Mantra, an auspicious rendering that is central to Jains and wrote a book on the subject, Song of the Soul.
For hundreds of years and as long as historical records are available, Jains monks did not use any mechanical means for travel. This was notwithstanding evidence that Lord Mahavira used boat to cross river Ganga when he was a monk. Yet, on June 17, 1975, at the height of his popularity as a monk, Muni Sushil Kumar made the fateful decision to travel outside India by use of an aircraft. That solitary act could be one of the most significant events in the history of Jainism in modern times. It opened doors to many Jain monks and nuns using mechanical means of travel, including outside India. As expected, the decisions caused some controversy in the Jain community.
During his travels, he helped found many organizations and communities across the globe that engage in promoting ahimsa and anekantavad. One of the principal organizations he founded in North America was the International Mahavira Jain Mission which manages the ashram Siddhachalam that he founded in New Jersey. Siddhachalam is regarded as the first tirtha (site of pilgrimage) outside India.
In 1986, he was formally conferred the title of "Acharya," the master, in New Delhi at an event presided by the then President of India.
Sushil Kumar gained wide attention in India for his efforts to bring peace in the Punjab during the early 1980s. Later,in 1992, he was actively involved in promoting dialogue between Muslim and Hindu factions during the Ayodhya dispute.