Winning Essay of 2010 Essay Writing Competition The following essay has been awarded a prize of $500 for being the number one essay from Groups 7 and 8. This prize has been sponsored by Mahendra and Linda Kapadia Family. Full Name: Vishal Modi – son of Manoj and Surabhi Modi School Grade: 10 Study Class Groups: 8 Essay Topic: - Acharya Hemchandra Suri Acharya Hemchandra Suri Since the beginning of time, man has followed his spiritual leader to limitless ends in attempt to become the perfect human being. Just as Catholics look to the Pope, Jains look to Acharyas to guide them on the journey to moksha. These Acharyas follow in the footsteps of Jain Tirthankars and devote themselves to translating and interpreting the Agams in such a way that the common people can understand its basic principles. Hundreds of Acharyas communicated their message to the Jain Sangh throughout history. However, only a select few went above and beyond their duties and truly transformed the Jain society to all of their ability. One such example is Acharya Hemchandra Suri, who, through his efforts, eternally changed the Jain religion, and all of Gujarat. Acharya Hemchandra was born in 1088 A. D. to Chachung Sheth and Pahini Devi in the town of Dhanduka and was given the name Changdeva. He was destined to take great strides in religion even before he was born. While he was still in the womb, Pahini had a striking dream, which she narrated to Acharya Devasuri, who happened to be in Dhanduka at the time. The Acharya congratulated Pahini and said that she would give birth to a son who would greatly advance the areas of spiritual faith, knowledge, and conduct. One day, Pahini Devi and Changdeva went to the local temple to perform puja. While there, Changdeva noticed Acharya Devasuri performing Chaityavandan, and sat down next to the acharya, following his every move. Pahini quickly finished her puja and ran over to retrieve Changdeva. Pahini recognized the Acharya and immediately bowed down to him, apologizing profusely, begging to offer him something. Devasuri obeyed, and asked for Changdeva. Pahini was torn; Changdeva was her only son, and there was no way that she could give him up. Devasuri calmly explained to her that her son was to achieve incredible heights during his lifetime, and this sacrifice was meant to be. Pahini reluctantly gave up her only child to the Jain Order, comforted by the fact that Changdeva was going to better her religion. Thus began Acharya Hemchandra’s scholarly and religious journey. Devasuri took Changdeva in as a disciple, and soon initiated him into monkhood. By becoming a sadhu, Changdeva became Somachandra. He was a very intelligent sadhu, as he was a quick learner and soon mastered many subjects, including the Darshanas and many other scriptures. He portrayed numerous excellent qualities such as chastity, holiness, generosity, tolerance, simplicity, and discipline. Once, he asked permission of Devasuri to travel to Kashmir in order to worship Mata Saraswati at her main tirth. Devasuri accepted, and Somachandra began his journey. Very shortly after beginning the journey in the outskirts of Khambhat, as Somachandra was meditating at night, Saraswati Devi appeared in front of him! She told him that she was so pleased that he was attempting his journey which he no longer need to continue and that he would become the most accomplished, knowledgeable man of the whole era. After this journey, Somachandra took much interest in writing literature. Day and night, he wrote scriptures on many important topics of Jainism. One night, Sasan Devi took him to the Girnar tirth, where he learned two very important mantras. Sasan Devi gave him to drink Amrut so that he would never forget these two mantras. He drank the juice and was returned to his Guru. He immediately told Devasuri of the incident, who became very pleased. So although Somachandra was incredibly young, only twenty-one years old, Devasuri made him an Acharya in 1110 AD because of his virtuous actions and morals. Thus he was given the name Acharya Hemchandra. Acharya Hemchandra was also known for his cooperation with dignified leaders from Gujarat. When Hemchandra became an Acharya, King Siddharaja Jaisingh ruled over the state of Gujarat. As the story goes, King Siddharaja was ceremoniously parading the streets of Patan, the capital of Gujarat, when he noticed Acharya Hemchandra walking down the same road. The King requested that the Acharya recite a few words, so Hemchandra complied and praised the king in a beautiful Sanskrit shloka. The King was extremely impressed, and asked him to attend his royal assembly every morning. Siddharaja used Hemchandra’s abilities to the fullest, carrying Gujarat to some of its most cultural and economic peaks in years. Acharya Hemchandra also had excellent relations with Siddharaja’s heir to the throne, Kumarpal. Acharya Hemchandra had predicted earlier that Kumarpal would become a wealthy king, not just by monetary standards, but by spreading the message of nonviolence and acceptance throughout his land. In addition, Hemchandra had saved his life from King Siddharaja. Siddharaja was Kumarpal’s uncle, but since he did not have a son, Kumarpal was to take the throne after his death. This deeply upset Siddharaja because the two did not get along very well. So Siddharaja sent out soldiers to murder Kumarpal. Terrified, Kumarpal ran to Hemchandra’s upashray, where he hid until the soldiers became exhausted from looking. Kumarpal therefore viewed Hemchandra as his spiritual teacher, and sought his advice for the betterment of Gujarat. Quickly, Jain principles spread throughout Gujarat, and it became a center for non-violence, learning, and good culture. This relationship between the King and the Acharya did not please everyone, however. Hemchandra was always thinking of the common man before himself, thus making him the favorite of Kumarpal. A few Brahmins became jealous of their relationship, and attempted to disgrace Hemchandra in order to gain better standing with the king. They approached Kumarpal and proclaimed that Hemchandra did not appreciate any religion but Jainism. Kumarpal refused to believe this incredible allegation, so the Brahmins requested that he invite Hemchandra to Lord Shiva’s temple at Somnath which King Kumarpal himself funded to renovate. They thought that Hemchandra would never come to the temple and bow down to Shiva, thus humiliating him in front of the King. Kumarpal agreed, and the Brahmins left contentedly, thinking that they would glorify their religion. Kumarpal immediately asked Hemchandra if he would accompany him to Lord Shiva’s temple. To the Brahmins’ surprise, Hemchandra accepted without any hesitation. When he arrived at the temple, he bowed down to Lord Shiva, and recited the following shloka: "Bhavbijaskurajanana ragadayah kshaymupagata yasya Brahma va Vishnurva haro Jino va namastasmai" Meaning, I am bowing down to the god who has destroyed all passions like attachment and hatred, which are the cause of worldly life, whether he is Brahma, Vishnu, or Jina. This crushed all of the doubt that Kumarpal had of Hemchandra. Kumarpal then asked Hemchandra which religion and dev would actually help him achieve moksha, so Hemchandra took him to temple hall. Hemchandra proclaimed that he would make Shankar Bhagavan appear in person, and began meditating. After many hours, the Mahadev came alive! He directed Kumarpal to follow every direction that Hemchandra gave him in order to achieve moksha. Under his influence, Kumarpal accepted the Jain faith, and made many laws that cultivated the Jain religion. The killing of any animal was prohibited throughout the state of Gujarat, as well as many other forms of violence. Vegetarianism was practiced by nearly everyone, not just Jains, in Gujarat. Jainism became the religion of the land because of Acharya Hemchandra. Acharya Hemchandra contributed to society in numerous other ways. He was an incredible writer, and wrote the grammars of Sanskrit and Prakrit in the text Siddha-haima-shabdanushasana, science and logic books, and an assortment of Indian philosophy. His best known epic, Tri-shashthi-shalaka-purusha- charitra (Lives of Sixty-Three Great Men), which consisted of 24 Tirthankars, 12 Chakravartis, 9 Baldevs, 9 Vasudevs, and 9 Prati-Vasudevs who represented the Jain belief system and spread it around the land. It is still used today as a reference to the early history of Jainism. For example, from this epic, we got the Saklarat Chaityavandan, which was comprised of thirty three stutis on the twenty four Tirthankars in the form of Sanskrit shlokas. Some popular stutis from this Chaityavandan are “Adimam Prutvinatha”, “Kamathe Darnendrencha”, and “Vira Sarva Sura Surendra Mahito”. In addition, he wrote the handbook Kavyanushasana, which was a guide to poetry, where he described important aspects such as the 9 major features of literature. Also, he wrote a dictionary called Abhidan Chintamani and Anekandha Sangrah, which matched every word of Sanskrit with another word, similar to a modern thesaurus. Another celebrated epic is Dwayashraya. Written in two parts, it gives a detailed history of the Solanki era in over 250,000 shlokas, half of which are in Sanskrit, and half of which are in Prakrit. This era included kings Siddharaja and Kumarpal. This shlokas are composed in such a way that they do not simply tell a story, but also explain the rules of Sanskrit and Prakrit grammar. One of his greatest works was his encyclopedia of Sanskrit grammar. King Siddharaj had just fought and won his greatest victory in Malav, even though everyone knew that Malav was a superior to Gujarat because of its superior, unmatched literary tradition. One day, an enormous cart full of books arrived in Patan from the city of Dhara of the newly conquered Malav kingdom.