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from slaughtering all animals on Mahavir Jayanti.” This statement brought out further rejoicing, and the Mayor responded with genuine enthusiasm and resolve.
“I am deeply grateful to you, Gurudev, for greeting me in this way and for uniting us all in the one vision all humanity must have, ahimsa, caring for all life. As my first declaration in office, I pledge to support and promote with all my heart the proposal to which the butchers agreed.'
True to his word, the new Mayor turned the proposal into law. On April 6, 1964, the thousands of people celebrating Mahavir Jayanti experience an added joy, an extra buoyant feeling in the knowledge that all the slaughterhouses in Bombay had been closed. It was a gift of breath and sunshine, of love and fearlessness to nearly twenty-two thousand creatures.
The celebration on Chowpatty Beach was an unprecedented one. Although four thousand chairs were set up, along with carpets spread out on the beach for another thirty thousand people, these arrangements turned out to accommodate only a fraction of the crowd. Well over one hundred thousand people were present that day. It was a day of exuberance. On the platform, Gurudev was joined by the Indian Home Minister; Mayor Bandukwalla; the Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, Shri V. P. Naik; leaders from Calcutta and Madras, representatives from foreign countries, and wellknown philanthropists. Mr. Naik presided over the gathering. He gave a glowing tribute to Gurudev for his perseverance in opening Mahavir Jayanti to people of all backgrounds, castes, and creeds.
Gurudev spoke to the people simply and lovingly of how happy he was to be able to share with them. “I have always felt that just as sunlight and air and water are free gifts to the universe, even so the pure teachings of Mahavir are universal gifts. Like nature's gifts, they are indispensable to all of us, to all living beings as well as human beings."
Jubilant in spirit, the people expressed their joy in one of their favorite symbolic ways, by releasing birds from cages and watching them soar into freedom. From that day, the celebra
*The talk which Gurudev gave on that day later came to be published in his book Ten Days Journey Into The Self.
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