Gurudevshri Rakeshji.
"If you don't change your mind, you may be restless in Mumbai, and you'll be equally restless in London!" The line drew knowing laughter from a hall full of Mumbaikars. It came from a man who knows the city's pace better than most visitors: Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, who was born, raised and educated here and who turned 60 on September 26.
A homecoming
His story begins at T.P. Shah Clinic, where he was born at 5:25 am on September 26, 1966. He studied in the city, taking both his M.A. and his PhD from the University of Mumbai. He then founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD), which today works across six continents.
Six decades on, he marked the milestone in his birth city. 'Aho Gurudev' was held at the Jio World Convention Centre in BKC on September 25 and 26. Thousands of devotees from 24 countries attended, alongside many of the city's business leaders, film personalities and public figures.
What the city gets
The Mission unveiled 60 projects for the milestone year, split evenly between spiritual growth and societal upliftment. Several of them are aimed at Mumbai itself.
The largest is the Shrimad Rajchandra Government ITI, which will be Mumbai's biggest skilling campus. The Mission will manage the institute, design its curriculum and bring top standards of industrial training to prepare young people for jobs. The same campus will host the Shrimad Rajchandra Centre for Advanced Training, with industry-focused programmes in electric vehicles, solar energy, robotics and AI.
Animals are next on the list. The Mission will soon open the Shrimad Rajchandra Animal Hospital in Mumbai. It already runs the Shrimad Rajchandra School for Special Needs Children in the city, a school and skill development centre supporting children with autism, Down syndrome and other conditions.
The Mission is also opening several spiritual centres across Mumbai. It calls them charging stations for body, mind and soul, offering meditation, wisdom sessions, youth workshops, courses, value-based education, seva and wellness under one roof.
Beyond the city, the Mission launched 60 Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care centres across India. Its anaemia mitigation and vision care projects have pledged to reach 60 million lives, and many of their camps are being held in Mumbai.
Industry and cinema in the audience
The guest list reflected the city. On the closing evening, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran and actor Ranbir Kapoor released 'Beyond - The Life and Works of Pujya Gurudevshri', a visual biography of the spiritual leader. Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy spoke on the opening night. Industrialist Motilal Oswal described the 60 projects as "a beautiful reflection of a life dedicated to serving humanity."
Kapoor was meeting Gurudevshri for the first time. He said the energy of the hall struck him as soon as he entered, and he was surprised by how many young people were there. "Even if you go to a school, you can't get 30 kids to listen to one teacher and follow," he said.
Hema Malini was present on the birthday morning. She called the occasion "not merely 60 years of a life, but 60 years of light." Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Subhash Ghai and Sajid Nadiadwala sent their wishes.
A show worthy of the city
The birthday morning saw 11 young professionals, among them a retina surgeon and four architects, take lifelong vows of renunciation. The ceremony also had a light moment. Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj, sitting opposite Hema Malini, remarked that any mention of Mumbai brings old Hindi film songs to mind, and then sang a few lines himself.
The closing evening was pure spectacle. Around 600 devotees scripted and performed a musical on Gurudevshri's life, staged with LED projections and drones.
Words for a city that never slows down
In his final discourse, Gurudevshri spoke directly to the Mumbai way of life. People keep changing their phones, jobs, outfits and even cities, he said, but they carry the same mind wherever they go.
He likened that mind to a phone with too many apps running at once. Spirituality, he said, is "learning how to close the unnecessary apps of your mind."
His parting message suited a city built on ambition: "Let us not merely live long, let's live deep. Let us not accumulate more; let's learn to circulate more."
