Comtemporary Jain Legends

Author(s): Atmanandji Maharaj
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

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17. Dharm Diwakar Shri Chothmalji Maharaj
(Dharm Diwakar means a man who enlightens religion)
Birth and Childhood:
The Indian soil has always been holy with the footsteps of warriors, Religious Saints, Social Reformers and other leaders. The region of Malva is particularly known for several saints' mendicants in addition to the rulers like brave Vikramaditya, King Bhoj and others. On this Holy Land a son was born to Kesarbai in 1907 at Neemuch City in Madhya Pradesh. His father Gangaramji was a religious, well-behaving family-holder. Many saints, mendicants and nuns used to come to his house very often and hence the members of the family remained in touch with them. The whole family was much pleased with birth of this child. The learned Brahmins and astrologers named the child as Chothmal. There are four meanings of the word Choth and the special features of this name of four letters are as under:
(1) In the long path for Moksha-Salvation the fourth part after the first three of knowledge, study of scriptures and character is penance and penance wipes out crises of deeds in previous years and also lives.
(2) In the five major vows, the fourth one is celibacy and it is the highest and most effective instrument in spiritual practices leading to Absolute Bliss.
(3) In the four sections of Religion, the fourth one is Bhava-i.e. feelings, tendency, trend. This is the main section by which Moksha can be achieved.
(4) Among the 14 virtues, the fourth virtue is equality; goodness (Samyaktva) the path to salvation begins with Samyaktva as its basis.
Family:
Chothmalji Maharaj had two brothers and two sisters. Elder brother's name was Kalooram and younger brother was Fatehchand. Navalbai and Sunderbai were the two sisters. At the age of seven, the father of Chothmalji put him to a school for study. The child was very clever and therefore, he did not stop simply at reading and writing but studied Hindi, Urdu, English, Arithmetic and other subjects also. He was fond of reading new books. Since the whole family was godly-minded, Chothmalji who was interested in music also naturally adopted the virtues of discipline, truth, and service to elders.
Tending towards Detachment with the World:
When Chothmalji was of about 13 years of age, his elder brother Kalooram developed vices of gambling, wine drinking etc. On one night, Kalooram was constantly winning in gambling and hence the opposite-side players killed him. With this incident, the child Chothmalji learnt the lesson that evil habits always lead to evils. Gangaramji, the father of Chothmalji felt a shock with this untimely death of Kalooram and he died in 1894 in spite of day and night services of Chothmalji and his mother Kesarbai. Both the mother and son were very unhappy with these events and they were tending to understand the worthlessness of this world. Mother Kesarbai was deeply unhappy but she had the responsibility to bring up Chothmalji, put him to some work and got him married. She decided in her mind that after this burden is gone, she would adopt Dixa.
When Chothmalji was of 16 years of age, his relatives thought of his marriage and he was married to Mankunvarbai, daughter of Poonamchandji of Pratapgadh (Rajasthan). Chothmalji always desired to earn religious bliss alongwith money. In those days many saints and monks were visiting the city of Neemuch very frequently and Chothmalji and his mother Kesarbai used to see and serve them. One day, the mother Kesarbai expressed her desire of adopting Dixa before Chothmalji and said, "I want to
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