IndiaPost.com - Award of Excellence for Mahendra & Asha Mehta

NEW JERSEY: Mahendra and Asha Mehta of Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust, Mumbai, received the 2008 "Award of Excellence" from International Jain Sangh (IJS) of New Jersey at the Mahavir Jayanti celebration program on April 20.

Each year IJS honors an exceptionally worthy person, who has visibly and verifiably demonstrated a great service to further the teachings of Lord Mahavir including peace, nonviolence, education, and compassion either by practice or by influencing public policies, media coverage or through interfaith programs. Instituted in 2001, the former recipients of this prestigious award were Bawa Jain, Dr Dhiraj H Shah, Arvind Vora, Dr Tansukh Salgia, Pravin K Shah and Dr Sulekh Jain.

In their acceptance speech, Mr and Mrs Mehta shared experiences about their humanitarian projects for the poor in India and Africa including fitment of artificial limbs and calipers; distribution of wheelchairs, crutches, and hearing aids; daily distribution of food to the needy children; networking with other NGOs; and their inspiration from the teachings of Lord Mahavir.

Naresh Jain, IJS Vice-President, JAINA Interfaith Co-Chair, and Finance & Administration Chair of the Parliament of World's Religions, Chicago; introduced Mr and Mrs Mehta to the several hundred people and dignitaries gathered in this 2607th anniversary celebration.

According to Jain, this award had become now truly international as the Mehtas reside in Mumbai while the former recipients were from USA; and also a woman had entered the Excellence Club. IJS displayed several posters and showed clips of their humanitarian projects during this event.

The day long Jayanti celebration started with Mahavir Swami Puja followed by religious presentations by scholars Chandrakant Mehta and Dr Yashwant Malaiya; JAINA activities by the President Dilip Shah; and a Pledge for Mutual Respect and Nonviolence by all attendees.

After this a grand cultural program and Rath Yatra depicting the life and teachings of Lord Mahavir were presented by 50 local youth and children hosted by an accomplished Bharat Natyam Dancer Divya Jain who had herself performed last September in the Encuentro Mundial Interreligioso 2007, Monterrey, Mexico.