Jainism at Vatican

AHMEDABAD: For Harshad Sanghrajka, 74, his last visit to the Vatican to take part in ‘Humanum - The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Interreligious Colloquium’ at Vatican City, in November 2014 was special. He not only shared the dais with Pope Francis during the inaugural session but also was one of the first four speakers there.
He represented UK-based Institute of Jainology (IoJ) and Jainism as a whole.Sanghrajka holds the distinction of meeting last three popes. During the colloquium, he represented the Jain thoughts on the issue of man and woman complementarity.
On a visit to the state, Sanghrajka told TOI that interfaith dialogues have now become more and more relevant, where terrorists take shelter under the name of religion to justify the heinous acts. “The Vatican has taken the initiative to open the dialogue on an array of issues and we hope that the appeals from such a global platform would reach the right persons,” he said.
It was during one such meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) in the aftermath of 9/11 terror strike that Sanghrajka met Pope John Paul II. The then pope had launched the first interreligious prayer for peace gatherings in Assisi in 1986. The religious leaders returned to Assisi in January 2002 to pray and proclaim to the world that violence committed in God’s name is an abomination.
“Interestingly, his successor Pope Benedict XVI was one of the few Vatican officials who had decided not to attend the 1986 meeting. However, he marked the 25th anniversary of the gathering with his own invitation to the religious leaders and secular humanists to join him in the hometown of St Francis in 2011. Then we had the opportunity to meet him,” said Sanghrajka.
Sanghrajka is native of Amreli in Gujarat. At the age of five, he and his family joined his father in Nairobi, Kenya, where he completed his education and started working. He later migrated to the UK where after retiring from IBM, he devoted his full time to propagating Jainism. He is part of mega project, Jainpedia, and other initiatives taken up by the institute to create awareness about Jainism abroad.