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love grew and flowered, radiating its fragrance throughout Bombay. It was at this time that Gurudev wrote in his diary.
"Here am I with my rajoharan, I'll clear the land of thorn and thistle, I'll scatter good seed and water it with holy water and nourish it with compassion from my own life."
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Voice for the Voiceless
In the second and third years of his stay in Bombay, many dedicated people wanted to help Gurudev work for the protection of life and the prevention of unnecessary suffering wherever it existed. A number of municipal corporators who had the power to vote in Bombay's municipal government were eager to lend their support as well. This was a positive step because at this time, government leaders were proposing new means of income which would increase violence to life: the export of meat, leather, and other animal products to countries abroad, and the building of more slaughterhouses. Some politicians encouraged people to engage in meatpacking as a trade. Gurudev organized protest meetings to offset these trends in thinking.
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Gurudev shared his point of view in a gentle, unblaming manner. He felt that it was unawareness of life and Self, not deliberate cruelty, which was at fault. The conditions in the slaughterhouses were unknown to many of his listeners. For some, it was the first time they had imagined the frenzy of the animals, their mute agony, as they watched their fellow beings slaughtered ahead of them, the pain of a calf, piglet, goat or chick torn away from its mother, and the sorrow in the mother's heart as well. For others, it was the first time they had given thought to the extremely unsanitary conditions prevalent in an abattoir.
"One visit to the slaughterhouse where these innocent
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