´óÏóÊÓƵ

Dr. Jasvant Modi joins fellow Jain community donors in supporting UCLA's Bhagavan Abhinandan Endowed Chair, expanding the university's study of Jain traditions and global religious thought.

LOS ANGELES, June 12, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) today hosted the inaugural lecture for the Bhagavan Abhinandan Endowed Chair in Jain Studies. Established through a generous $2 million donation from a dedicated group of Jain community donors, the chair marks a major milestone in expanding the study of Jain philosophy, ethics, and traditions within UCLA's Center for the Study of Religions.

The landmark event featured a distinguished lecture by Professor Miki Chase, Chair of the Shri Anantnath Chair of Jain Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Professor Chase's address focused on the profound and complex Jain practice of Sallekhana (spiritual fasting), sparking an engaging and thought-provoking Q&A session with an audience of 40 scholars, students, and community members in attendance.

At the heart of this intersection is the practice of Sallekhana (or Santhara). In a conventional Western medical framework, a terminal illness or cognitive decline is typically met with aggressive intervention, palliative sedation, or institutionalized hospice care to mitigate suffering and prolong life.

Chase's research, presented at the UCLA inaugural lecture, demonstrates that for contemporary urban Jain families, this bodily decline is completely reframed:

• The Medical vs. The Spiritual: Rather than a tragedy to be clinically managed, the end of life is viewed as a rare, spiritually potent window for ascetic detachment ("vairagya").
• Redefining the "Good Death": By showing how families elevate physical pain into a mechanism for burning off karma, the lecture challenged the audience of scholars and community members to question whether Western bioethical paradigms—which assume medicalization is always necessary—are truly universal.

Dr. Alexandra Stern, Dean of the Humanities division, attended the lecture and formally expressed her gratitude to the audience and the visionary donors whose philanthropy made the chair possible.

"The establishment of the Bhagavan Abhinandan Endowed Chair is a transformative addition to our campus," said Dean Stern. "We are deeply grateful to the Jain community for their incredible generosity. This chair ensures that Jainism's vital contributions to world philosophy—particularly its core tenets of non-violence and mindfulness—will be studied and celebrated at UCLA for generations to come."

The afternoon's academic program was preceded by a celebratory vegan lunch, bringing together key university leadership, faculty, and the foundational donors. Attendees included Dean Stern, Pamela Sullivan (Director of Development), and Dr. Carol Bakhos (Director of the Center for the Study of Religion), all of whom gathered to honor the community-driven partnership that brought this academic chair to fruition.

With the launch of the Bhagavan Abhinandan Endowed Chair, UCLA strengthens its position as a premier institution for global religious literacy and cultural research, bridging ancient philosophical wisdom with contemporary academic dialogue.

For more on , please visit his website at

Media Contact

Media Relations, Dr. Jasvant Modi, 1 (415) 326-4475, [email protected]

SOURCE Dr. Jasvant Modi