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authority of someone else's word. Gurudev observed, “A : trivial quarrel, no doubt, but I ask you, have not men of different religions argued with the same intolerance and vehemence over the centuries?” The argument among the blind men ended when one man who could see told them that the window pane was multi-colored. In the same way, Gurudev said that religious intolerance could end if everyone recognized that truth is multi-faceted and that religions are like different flowers in the same garden, each giving off a unique fragrance.
To clarify the ancient principle of non-acquisitiveness, he told the story of a monk who became Enlightened upon observing a pack of stray dogs chasing and eventually mauling one dog who had a bone in his mouth. “Bleeding from the wounds, the dog dropped the bone and was left in peace. No sooner had he dropped the bone than another picked it up, and he too, met with the same fate ... Contemplating on this ugly incident, the muni realized the truth. So long as the dog clung to the bone, he had to bleed for it; the moment he gave it up he was left in peace. 'Does not man bleed mentally and spiritually to gratify his lust for acquisition and would he not attain serenity if he renounced it?' thought the muni.”
Writing about the first day of the Conference, a reporter from The Boston Globe was exuberant: “Hit speaker of the day was a youthful-appearing Saint of the Jain religion of India. Munishri Chitrabhanu told his listeners that they shouldn't depend on God, but upon themselves.... All the prayers in the world will not stop the Vietnam War,' he said, 'but President Nixon could do it with one word. See the power of man. Man is Master of the cosmos... he can do and undo. If he won't face this fact, we shall waste each other's time. Man has become so powerful that he commands the world. What we Jains are after is to perfect man."
One of his current students met him at that time. She corroborated this impression of Gurudev's dynamism. Heidi Overby, who had been meditating with Theosophists in those years, found herself in Harvard Square on October 11. Upon seeing a sign announcing the Conference, she wandered over to the
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