Ahmedabad: Bhanwarlal Raghunath Doshi borrowed Rs 30,000 from his textile trader father in the 70s to set up a plastic business in Delhi. He rejected his father's small but successful business to venture on his own and left his hometown in Rajasthan for Delhi.
For years, he struggled but through grit and intelligence, he went on to build an empire worth billions just to give it all away.
Known as Delhi's 'plastics king', Bhanwarlal Raghunath Doshi, gave up his over Rs 600-crore business empire to embrace Jain monastic life at an extravagant ceremony in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The ceremony, in which he was to give up all earthly possessions, Doshi spent around Rs 25 crore.
Doshi became a monk under the discipleship of Jain Acharya, Shri Gunratna Surishwarji Maharaj and adopted the name Bhavyaratna Vijay Maharajsaheb. He became the 108th disciple of Surishwarji Maharaj and 354th postulant to become a monk under him.
The ceremony was attended by both Jain spiritual leaders and the city's top industrialists. Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani was among the attendees.
The pandal at Ahmedabad Education Ground was built on the theme of a three storey ship and was named 'samyam jahaj' (ship of restraint) which alone had cost Rs 10 crore. The length of the ship was 570 ft.
30 event organising companies, almost 1,500 volunteers looked after the management at the event. 262 buses and 25 security agencies were deployed at the function. 500 hotel rooms were also booked to accommodate guests. An estimated 1,50,000 people participated in the event.
1,500 servers, dressed as sailors, were appointed to serve food to guests during the three-day ceremony. Apart from 1,000 sadhus and sadhvis, the event also had 1.5 lakh samayiks (spectators).
Doshi was drawn to spirituality in 1982 after he listened to Jain lectures and ever since, he has been planning to take diksha. He could, however, convince his family only the last year.
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