Chitrabhanu (July 26, 1922 – April 19, 2019) was a prominent figure in American Jainism. He was one of the co-founders of

JAINA JAINA is an acronym for the Federation of Jain Associations in North America, an umbrella organizations to preserve, practice, and promote Jainism in USA and Canada. It was founded in 1981 and formalized in 1983. Among Jain organization it is ...

Personal life

He was born as Rup-Rajendra Shah on July 26, 1922 in a small town Takhatgarh in Pali district of Rajasthan, India. He studied

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

. He found Acharya Sagaranand as his Guru. He became a Jain monk on February 6, 1942 at the age of 20 at

Palitana Pālītāṇā is a city in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, India. It is located 50 km southwest of Bhavnagar city and is a major pilgrimage centre ("shashwat tirth") for Jains. It is first of the two vegetarian cities in the world. Histo ...

and was named Muni Chandraprabha Sagar for 29 years. In 1970 he was invited to attend The Second Spiritual Summit Conference to be held in April in

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

. Jain monks are traditionally not permitted to travel overseas. He gave up monkhood in 1970 to attend the Summit, and became an ordinary shravaka. He also married Pramoda Shah in 1971. He has two sons, Rajeev Chitrabhanu and Darshan Chitrabhanu. He died in his

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

residence on April 19, 2019.

In USA

After spending some time in Africa and Europe, he came to the USA in 1971 to attend the Third Spiritual Summit at the

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

. In 1973, he founded the Jain Meditation International Center in Manhattan,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He claimed to attain enlightenment in 1981 by the ocean at San Diego. In 1975 he met Jain Muni Sushil Kumarji to USA, the first practicing

Jain monk Jain monasticism refers to the order of monks and nuns in the Jain community and can be divided into two major denominations: the ''Digambara'' and the '' Śvētāmbara''. The monastic practices of the two major sects vary greatly, but the ...

on his visit to USA. He was among the early promoters of

Yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

in USA. His disciple Beryl Bender Birch developed her own style of yoga.American Yoga: The Paths and Practices of America's Greatest Yoga Masters, Carrie Schneider, Sterling Publishing Company, 2003, p.39

Establishment of JAINA

With his guidance, a federation of all Jain associations termed

(Federation of Jain Associations in North America), was founded which became the umbrella organization with more than 100,000 members. For his unprecedented journey to bring the Jain tradition of ahimsa to the Western Hemisphere, Chitrabhanu received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award.

Works

He has written about twenty-five books which mainly deal with the topic of self-realization. Some of these are: *The Jain Path to Freedom *The Dynamics of Jain Meditation *Meditations on the Seven Energy Centers *The Philosophy of Soul and Matter *Ten Days Journey into the Self *The Miracle is You and Reflections

References

External links