Recently I have been helping out with fund raising efforts at our Jain temple. I am part of the Jain community, a small group of about 100 people in central Ohio that practice Jainism. Due to the lack of funds and size of our community, our temple is really a unit within an office complex which has been converted into a place of worship. We are getting closer to our goal of raising enough money to buy some land and build an independent temple. This spring the temple's executive committee has decided to put together a dance drama fund raiser to raise money for a new temple.

The show is titled Mahavir, which is a drama choreographed by a wonderful dance instructor in the Columbus area and performed by dozens of kids from our own community. Everyone has been hard at work trying to make this event happen. I have contributed my design and promotion skills by designing tickets and helping promote the event, while others have contributed to planning the logistics of the event, and still others have provided monetary support. I believe the cause for the event is great but in the back of my mind, as much as I hate to say it, I believe this event is not going to be successful. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but the idea is flawed, and unfortunately adults never want to listen to kids' ideas. The committee has put too much time and money into the event to turn back now.

There are some direct issues that need to be addressed before a community can take on an event like this. The idea seems great, but it has not been thought out completely. The first issue with the fund raiser is that they want to charge tickets at $25, $50, $75 and $100 levels. The pricing seems a little steep, and when they have the ability to charge as little as just a few dollars for the show, there is no reason to inflate the prices so ridiculously high. The fact of the matter is that people will come to the event for entertainment as well, not only to support the community. The reason I say that is because there are 100 families in the Jain community, but they are trying to sell over 700 tickets for the show. This means people from other communities are going to have to come to this event in order to meet the goals set, and these people have their own fund raising goals. Raising money for another community's temple may not be one of their main goals. Especially if they are not Jain or do not believe in Jainism. There is no celebrity talent or anything, and don't get me wrong, these kids are very talented, but when you are charging big money for events, people expect big names.

Another issue is that the event does not have mass appeal. The drama will be performed through classical Indian dance, which is beautiful but does not have widespread appeal. The event also has high overhead, since the Indian dance choreographer is being paid for every practice, and on top of that, they get free advertising to thousands of Indians within the Columbus area. I would say that is a poorly negotiated deal, because anyone getting that much advertising for a professional dance academy can more than make up their losses due to their hourly choreography fees by the new business that this event will bring them. They should be doing their part to help out because after all, this is a fund raiser.

Aside from the apparent issues with the event, when you dig deeper you find many more issues with all this fund raising. I am always told to help the community, because that is what a good person does. I have always heard people at the temple say "give and you'll always get something in return." I started thinking of what this really meant. Obviously the temple is doing a lot of fund raising to build a new place, so they are telling the whole community to give to the cause, and they will get back the experience of spiritual enlightenment and other good stuff.

I started look at the Jain temple as a non-profit organization. If they are always telling me to give and help others, then the same should apply to our community as a whole. I am having trouble finding any specific example of a time when the people of our temple have gone outside of our own community and helped others. The temple should give, and people will surely give back. I look at these Christian churches, the Muslims and Jews and I can't help but appreciate all that they do for the community. They look beyond a person's religious affiliation and into that person's heart and soul. I see Muslims helping Hindus and Christians helping Jews all the time. They have open soup kitchens, help the homeless, teach people how to read. And our temple seems to be out of the loop, caught up in our selfish goals of building a new temple. Do we really need it?

I am proud to worship at an office building turned temple because it is better than nothing, and we have a small community that the building has been able to accommodate without any issues. I think our temple needs to look beyond our own goals and give to the community first. What goes around comes around, but if you don't send anything around, you'll be sure to get nothing in return. Successful communities rely on each other. They are proud to help others, and not shy to ask for help in return. I believe someone needs to open our community's eyes to realize that there are things more important than money, even if it is for building a temple, and that there are people that we could be helping. Unfortunately, there has yet to be anyone bold enough to challenge the community and its ways, but someone needs to do it. I hope to be that someone.

Posted in Posted by Umang Patel at 10:10 PM