Mahaveer Jayanthi, April 16th 2011.

ain Yuva Sanghatan

Bangalore

Mahaveer Jayanthi, April 16th 2011.

The 2610th Janam Kalyanak (birth day) of Mahavira also known as “World peace Day” was celebrated
today at Freedom Park. The celebrations began with a peace march. The procession flagged off at
the Historic Bangalore Town hall, made its way through the narrow and densely populated streets
of Nagrathpet, Chikpet via BVK Iyengar road to Freedom Park, where the gathering of thousands of
Jains celebrated the 2610th birth of the 24th Thirthankara. The peaceful march had a single agenda –
spread the words of Mahavira. That of Non-violence and peace.

This was achieved excellently by the multiple tableaus enacting various scenes from the Jain
Mythology, life of Mahavir and Unity among Jain sects, Peace and Violence. The various scenes were
widely accepted by the audience; acknowledging them with great applause. The procession flowed
into freedom park wave after wave. The gathering of thousands of Jains is arranged every year on
this auspicious day by Jain Yuva Sanghatan.

Mahavir Janam Kalyanak was then celebrated by the abhishek of the idol of Lord Mahavir.

The Chief guest, Sri. Yeddyurappa, CM of Karnataka addressed the gathering. He praised the
teaching of Lord Mahavir, his sacrifices and wished all the Jains for his birthday. India has given birth
to a lot of religions, and accepted many from outside. We still hold unity in this diverse atmosphere.
Similar is the story of Karnataka, It has accepted all religions as their own and all religions live with
each other like children from the same mother. Karnataka is very rich with ancient Jain religion
prospering in Karakala, Moodbidri etc. Adikavi Pampa, Ranna and Attimabbe were great poets of
Jain origin in Kannada. We are proud to have such a religion in our state. He also praised JYS for
the various greats deeds this group brings such as education, health and now the Cow slaughter
ban. It is not possible to win with violence, But with non-violence and peace, this has already been
proven by Mahatma Gandhi. He expressed his extreme happiness to participate in this celebration.
He then highlighted the growth of Bangalore. He hoped for the support in the same. The Bangalore
Metro will be flagged in a few days time and he hoped it will help absorb this explosion of growth of
Bangalore, and we need the blessings of Jain saints and support of all the peace loving Jains.

Yeddyurappa was then felicitated by JYS while he seeked blessings from the Jains Saints. JYS
appealed to the CM to grant subsidy to “Cow –sheds“ (Goshala) similar to the subsidy for the poultry
farms.Sri B.S.Yeddyrurappa ji felicitated Sri Vimalchand Sipani & his Brothers for the huge charity work done by him .

Sri Sajjan Raj Mehta, The president of JYS in his welcome speech appreciated the Hon.C.M for his efforts to ban the cow-slaughter in Karnataka..He appealed to the govt to name any one of the trains
to “Vardhaman Express”. He also mentioned that the principles of Mahavira are ever followed and
never old as is evident in today’s world also, since Sri Anna Hazare also follows the non-violent
methodology.

Sri Suresh Dhoka, The secretary of JYS made similar appeals to the railway minister KH Muniyappato rename one of the trains to “Mahavir Express” or “Vardhaman Express”. They also presented a
request to the railway minister to rename the Mysore Bank Metro Station as “Vardhaman Mahavir
Metro Station”. He also mentioned that 13th May will be celebrated as the ‘Samayik Diwas’ where
numerous Jains will gather to pray for world peace.

Sri. K.H.Muniyappa, The State minister of railways, addressed the gathering. He mentioned that
Jainism has always preached peace and non-violence. Starting from the 12th century Basavanna till
the 20th Century Mahatma Gandhi all have preached and followed peace and non-violence. Jainism
is an extremely ancient religion. It is a great religion that it has taken various initiatives for cows,
their food and shelter. He insisted his support to the whole of Jain religion and he assured that he
will get the approval from the central govt to rename any one train from Bangalore after the great
saint.

M.P of Bangalore North, Sri Chandra gowdra, He highlighted that a child is born ignorant, belief-less.
We, the environment, influences the ignorant child to believe, to follow religions. We influence and
bias the thoughts of the ignorant child. He acknowledged the work of JYS for the cow slaughter ban
and that in health and education.

Jain saint Sri Sahil muni blessed the huge gathering, he said that Mahavir bled milk instead of blood
on a snake-bite. We must also follow the same in our lives by returning good even for the bad
behaviour.Jain saint sri praveen rishi ji and vinay muni ji also spoke in detail about the jain religion and priciples of
Bhagwan Mahaveer which are quite handy if adopted in total to uplift the moral of our daily life..Samani anchalpragya
and Sadhvi Satyaprabha ji also spoke about jain unity and how little displininary vows taken by can help us to live better..

Sri Dinesh Gundurao ,MLA,Gandhinagar,who has always been an ardent supporter of Jain Religion, Lord Mahavir had
great forethought that his words though are over 2500 years old, we still insist, follow, preach and
spread his word. Jainism is the only religion that is ever-ready to help the needy. He also appealed
that for the naming of the train to Vardhaman Express.

A lot of Humanitarian services were also provided at the location. Upto 330 people donated blood,
which could have been easily 500, due shortage of space denied many their chance of blood
donation. There were numerous donations made at the occasion towards the education and health
schemes. JYS has been supporting 50 families for medicines under the “Jeevan Sanjeevani“ and 125
students for education under the “Jeevan Shiksha” and supported 5 operations under the “Jeevan
Raksha” schemes. These schemes were supported by all the chief guests including the chief minster,
They all donated to these schemes at the occasion.

Sri Rajesh Bantia, then appealed the entire crowd of Jains to not just talk about ekta (unity), but
actually follow it. He appealed all the Jains to follow the Samvatsari on the same day, to pray
together, to celebrate together as one - Jain.Jain leaders Sri Kesarimal Burad,Sri Uttamchand Bhandari &
Sri Kanhaiyalal Chippad were the guests of honour of jain community and they were happy with the excellent work
by Jain Yuva Sangathan..Jys seva trust member Sri Premkumar Kothari shared the details of seva trust..4 Donors of jain community were declared Bhamashah,s by JAIN YUVA SANGATHAN SEVA TRUST named Sri Babulal Ranka,Sri Padam Raj Mehta,Sri Shantilal Lunavat & Sri Devraj ji Chouhan..
Sri Dayananda Swami, chairman of the GO-HATYA NISHEDHA ANDOLAN,, announced that the slaughter over
sacrifice to Lord Hanuman, of over 5000 animals was avoided today because of Mahavir Jayanthi at
Tavarekere in Tumkur district. He also announced that the movement towards cow slaughter ban
will continue until the president signs and approves the bill.

Sri Ananthkumar, M.P of Bangalore South, expressed his full support towards jains and also
mentioned that the celebrations needs a bigger place and we can use the National College grounds.
He will also pressurize the centre govt to rename the trains and the metro station as requested by
the Jains.BBMP MAYOR SRI S.K.NATRAJ & SRI HEMCHANDRA SAGAR ,MLA,Chickpet were also present and felicitated..BBMP Corporators Sri Shivkumar,Sri Natraj,Sri dhanraj etc were also present..All chief guests were felicitated which was followed by the maha manglik from pujya guruji. Thus
ended the event. Jai Mahavir, Jai Karnataka, Jai Hind.

We request you to please publish this in your esteemed media.

Thanking you,

Sajjan Raj Mehta,
President, Jain Yuva Sanghatan.
9845501150