Report by Jaipat Singh Jain, President
Nearly 20 executives of Goldman Sachs and their guests enthusiastically gave one day of their time on May 10, 2009 to plant trees at Siddhachalam.
Siddhachalam is rich in forest cover but we need to periodically plant more trees as our trees are becoming old. Last year, we engaged in a massive exercise of ridding a large part of our forest cover of parasites such as posion ivy. This year, we will focus on planting new trees as well – fruit trees, flowering trees and trees that provide primarily shade.
In all, 35 trees were planted – from the Sthanak area to Guruji’s cabin, opposite Ahimsa Bhawan and by the main temple parking. Landscaping work was also done near the Shikharji model toonk.
Devendrabhai Mehta, the team lead from Goldman Sachs, worked for several weeks to make the event happen. Rashmi Jain, Narendra Gupta, Pardeep Sharma, among others, at Siddhachalam made the preparations for the event. Goldman Sachs employees and guests included Padmavathy Malligarjunan, Ketal Mehta, Neil Mehta, Urvi Sanghvi, Mallika Shah, Mathangi Venkatesan, Ashwin Natarajan, Raj Sambasivan, Hemal Shah (co-team lead), Pragnesh Shah, Pratiksha Shah, Vinayak Shekhar, Subhashish Sinha, Kannan Gokulnath Coimbatore, Vikas Goel, Vamsee Jasti, and Vinodh Periyasamy. Among Siddhachalam veterans, Arunbhai Kothari did a good amount of kar seva too. We were also fortunate to have Dr. Sadhna Mehta, Mr. Rajendra Mehta and their daughter who did whole day of volunteer work along with Goldman vounteers. Dr. Mehta also served as a standing physician to attend to any emergency medical needs. More volunteers are needed for volunteer tasks at Siddhachalam.
Goldman Sachs’ generous offer to support tree planting not only included one day of voluntary work but also financial help. We applaud their community service and thank them for their help in an important and urgent task.
Keshi said to Gautam: “Whom do you call foes?” Hearing these words of Keshi, Gautam replied: “O sage! The first foe is one’s unconquered soul. Add to this the four passions of anger, conceit, deceit and greed, and the five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. Vanquishing all these ten, I move about righteously.” Kumar-shraman Keshi said: “Gautam, you are endowed with excellent wisdom. You have removed my doubt…” Uttaradhyayana Sutra, 23:3- 39. The conversation between Sharman Keshi, follower of Bhagwaan Parsvanath, and Gautam Swami, the ganadhara of Bhagwaan Mahavira.