Sapta Bhashi Atmasiddhi

SR No.: 002593
Original Sutra Author: Shrimad Rajchandra
Author: Pratapkumar J Toliiya, Sumitra Tolia
Publisher: Jina Bharati Bangalore
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 226
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati,
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Spiritual, & Rajchandra
File Size: 21 MB

Page 210

(७) सप्तभाषी आत्मसिद्धि
168
SAPTABHASHI ATMASIDDHI
Truth-seeker Gandhiji frankly writes about his own inner condition of that time:
Rajchandraji who strengthened his faith in his own fold of Hinduism, it will be interesting and useful to have a glimpse of Gandhiji's first and primary acquaintances with Srimadji.
It was the month of July in 1891 A.D., one Hundred years ago. Gandhiji, the then Barrister M.K. Gandhi, had returned from England after his studies in Law. He had put up with Dr. Pranjivandas Mehta at Bombay, whose niece was married to Rajchandraji, then known as Poet Raychandbhai. Dr. Mehta was the person to introduce Rajchandraji saying about him:
"My spiritual state was that of a knowledge-seeker (JIGYASU) only when we met first. There remained doubts in mind about several questions.........I had a little knowledge about Religion, Hinduism, Geeta etc. at that time. I am not talking here of whatever I had acquired from my parents. It was not so that had I known much about religion through my own efforts. But I used to have eagerness to know about religion. Hence I liked the acquaintance of Raychandbhai and I got influenced by his words."
"In spite of being a poet he is associated with us in Business. He is a very knowledgeable person, a Gyani, a Shatavadhani [one who is capable of attending to one hundred things at a time and recollecting the same in order]."
Gandhiji records on page 113-114, in his autobiography, "The story of my Experiments with Truth", also :
Someone suggested to Gandhiji at that time that "Why don't you narrate a few words to Raychandbhai ? He will repeat them in the same order irrespective of whatsoever language".
Gandhiji, astonished at listening this, narrates the incidence clarifying his own condition of that time :
"Young man was I, returned from England, showy of my knowledge of Language, no less was the influence of the west upon me. Returned from Abroad means descended from Heaven ! I made a big show of expressing the whole of my knowledge and first of all I wrote down words of different languages -----because where was I capable to hold that order in my memory ? I read out those words thereafter. What a surprise that Raychandbhai slowly and smoothly repeated all these words in the same order ! I was pleased, greatly astonished and cultivated my high opinion about the Memory Power of the Poet. This experience should be good enough to calm down my pride of the Western influence........"
"Raychandbhai's commercial transactions covered hundreds of thousands. He was a connoisseur of pearls and diamonds. No knotty business problem was too difficult for him. But all these things were not the centre around which his life revolved. That centre was the passion to see God face to face. Amongst the things on his business table there were invariably to be found some religious book and his diary. The moment he finished his business he opened the religious book or the diary. The man who, immediately on finishing his talk about weighty business transactions, began to write about the hidden things of the spirit could evidently not be a businessmen at all, but a real seeker after Truth. And I saw him thus absorbed in godly pursuits in the midst of business, not once or twice, but very often. I never saw him lose his state of equipoise. There was no business or other selfish tie that bound him to me, and yet I enjoyed the closest association with him. I was but a bricfless barrister then, and yet whenever I saw him he would engage me in conversation of a seriously religious nature. Though I was then groping and could not be said to have any serious interest in religious discussions, still I found his talk of absorbing interest. I HAVE SINCE MET MANY A RELIGIOUS LEADER OR TEACHER. I HAVE TRIED TO MEET THE HEADS OF VARIOUS FAITHS, AND I MUST SAY THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS EVER MADE ON ME THE IMPRESSION THAT RAYCHANDBHAI DID. HIS WORDS WENT STRAIGHT HOME TO ME. HIS INTELLECT COMPELLED AS GREAT A REGARD FROM ME AS HIS MORAL EARNESTNESS; AND DEEP DOWN IN ME WAS THE CONVICTION THAT HE WOULD NEVER WILLINGLY LEAD ME ASTRAY AND WOULD ALWAYS CONFIDE TO ME HIS INNERMOST THOUGHTS. IN MY MOMENTS OF SPIRITUAL CRISIS, THEREFORE, HE WAS MY REFUGE."
Gandhiji was so much impressed at this very first acquaintance by Rajchandraji that he felt such a Memory, such a knowledge and that too of a not much schooleducation-possessing and a little elder to him (just by one year and ten months) person was rare. Even he was so much respected without going out of India. This thing made Gandhiji to realise that one need not go abroad to gather respect and memory could not be purchased from the school and so also knowledge!
As mentioned previously, Gandhiji was impressed not only by this memory power and knowledge of Rajchandraji, but by his "SPOTLESS CHARACTER AND HIS BURNING PASSION FOR SELF REALISATION" also about which he came to know after coming in more contact with him after the above mentioned First Acquaintance.
"Though I could not place Raychandbhai on the throne of my heart as Guru, we shall see he was, on many occasions, my guide and helper...........
ofGHEST JINA-BHARATI •
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