A business mogul with an Rs600-crore empire has given up his entire worldly possessions and embraced the austere life of a monk. In a historic Diksha Samaroh — a religious ceremony to embrace Jain monastic life — Delhi-based plastic trader Bhavarlal Raghunath Doshi embraced Jain monkhood on Sunday.
The 59-year-old business tycoon, known as Delhi’s ‘plastic king’ in the National Capital Region’s (NCR) business circles renounced his worldly possessions in the presence of thousands of people in Ahmedabad. He will be known as Muni Bhavyaratna Vijayji in his monastic life. In the ceremony, 101 people, including businessmen from Gujarat and Rajasthan, also took a resolution to become Jain monks in the next five years.
As many as 108 luxury cars and top names of the Jain community from Gujarat and Rajasthan joined the religious procession from Ahmedabad airport to Ahmedabad Education Society (AES) ground. The seven-km-long procession, known as Varsi Daan in Jain religion, was taken out with 1,000 Jain monks, 12 chariots, nine elephants, nine camel carts and traditional musicians.
According to sources, around Rs100 crore was spent for the ceremony, which gave employment to over 1,000 people. For the first time in any Diksha Samaroh, an artistic ship 560-feet wide, 50-feet long and 90-feet height was prepared. It was named Sanyam Jahaj (Ship of restrains). As many as 250 buses were arranged for the people, who wanted to attend the ceremony. Of these, 15 buses came from neighbouring Rajasthan, where Doshi originally belongs to.
The ceremony was attended by 1,000 holy men and women (Jain Maharaj Saheb and Sadhwi). Doshi became the 108th disciple and 354th postulant of Jain Acharya Shri Gunratna Surishwarji Maharaj. Over one lakh people (samayiks) were present, including Adani Group chairman Gautham Adani, during the ceremony. The father of two sons and a daughter, the Delhi businessmen wanted to become a monk since 1982. According to him, Jain lectures influenced him and drew him to spiritual life. “However, Bhanvarlal could only convince his family last year,” said a Jain businessman close to the Doshi family.
The sources close to him said that Doshi borrowed a sum of Rs30,000 from his father in the late 70s to start his own plastic trading business in Delhi. His father used to run a small textile shop in Rajasthan. Bhanvarlal, however, decided not to join the family business and went to Delhi and became a successful businessmen in the national Capital. He plunged into the plastic raw material business and built a empire worth Rs600 crore. On Sunday, he gave away everything and adopted the simple life of a monk.