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The Miracle of Purun Bhagat
The Times (mostly paywalled): Tycoon gives up $600m for a monk’s life
One of India’s richest men has renounced all his wealth and taken a vow of celibacy to become a monk.
Bhanwarlal Doshi, a Delhi-based plastics tycoon with a fortune valued at over $600 million by Forbes, was initiated into a monastic order of the Jain faith in a three-day ceremony attended by more than 150,000 people.
I can't even. Here, have a quote from one of my favourite stories of all time (from the Second Jungle book):
Next month, when the city had returned to its sun-baked quiet, he did a thing no Englishman would have dreamed of doing; for, so far as the world’s affairs went, he died. The jewelled order of his knighthood went back to the Indian Government, and a new Prime Minister was appointed to the charge of affairs, and a great game of General Post began in all the subordinate appointments. The priests knew what had happened, and the people guessed; but India is the one place in the world where a man can do as he pleases and nobody asks why; and the fact that Dewan Sir Purun Dass, K.C.I.E., had resigned position, palace, and power, and taken up the begging-bowl and ochre-coloured dress of a Sunnyasi, or holy man, was considered nothing extraordinary. He had been, as the Old Law recommends, twenty years a youth, twenty years a fighter — though he had never carried a weapon in his life — and twenty years head of a household. He had used his wealth and his power for what he knew both to be worth; he had taken honour when it came his way; he had seen men and cities far and near, and men and cities had stood up and honoured him. Now he would let those things go, as a man drops the cloak he no longer needs.
The Miracle of Purun Bhagat
One of India’s richest men has renounced all his wealth and taken a vow of celibacy to become a monk.
Bhanwarlal Doshi, a Delhi-based plastics tycoon with a fortune valued at over $600 million by Forbes, was initiated into a monastic order of the Jain faith in a three-day ceremony attended by more than 150,000 people.
I can't even. Here, have a quote from one of my favourite stories of all time (from the Second Jungle book):
Next month, when the city had returned to its sun-baked quiet, he did a thing no Englishman would have dreamed of doing; for, so far as the world’s affairs went, he died. The jewelled order of his knighthood went back to the Indian Government, and a new Prime Minister was appointed to the charge of affairs, and a great game of General Post began in all the subordinate appointments. The priests knew what had happened, and the people guessed; but India is the one place in the world where a man can do as he pleases and nobody asks why; and the fact that Dewan Sir Purun Dass, K.C.I.E., had resigned position, palace, and power, and taken up the begging-bowl and ochre-coloured dress of a Sunnyasi, or holy man, was considered nothing extraordinary. He had been, as the Old Law recommends, twenty years a youth, twenty years a fighter — though he had never carried a weapon in his life — and twenty years head of a household. He had used his wealth and his power for what he knew both to be worth; he had taken honour when it came his way; he had seen men and cities far and near, and men and cities had stood up and honoured him. Now he would let those things go, as a man drops the cloak he no longer needs.
The Miracle of Purun Bhagat
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*Blinks*
Wow.
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(These things actually happen.)
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