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the same time lived his life as an ideal religious man. He observed and practised honesty, contentment, straightforwardness and maximum detachment in every walk of life. His practising such virtues, even as an house-holder proves that one can be religious and spiritual and follow the path of self-realization even as a layman.
His birth-place was a village called Vavāniyā in Kāțhiyāvāda (present Saurāṣtra). While he dealt in a city like Bombay, he conducted his business, not only very honestly but also keeping constantly in view his spiritual goal of self-realization.
We have already seen that his schooling started at the age of seven. He studied a number of scriptures within two years which would have taken a decade in case of an average student.' He was a voracious reader and could grasp quickly and easily and retain the substance of what he read, as he was very intelligent and had excellent memory. In his article SamuccayaVaya- Carcā, he has recorded this fact and has given a lot of information about himself. He is said to have composed a big poem containing 5000 ślokas at a very carly age of 8, which is unfortunately not available.”
