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J.T.F. Jordens in his paper titled "Gandhi and the Gita' 16 talks of the impact of Rajchandra on Gandhi:
Raychand's answers pacified him. It is in these answers that we find fundamental ideas that are very similar to those that we found to be the basic principles of Gandhi's conception of scriptures and religion and of the Gita-interpretation. The parallelism between Raychand's ideas as expressed in that letter of 1894 and those of Gandhi, described in the earlier part of essay (Interpretation of the Gita by Gandhi), are so pertinent and striking that one had to conclude that Raychand's influence on Gandhi's ideas was decisive.
His writings are the quintessence of his experience ..... One rare feature of his writing is that he always set down what he had felt in his own experience ..... He was a man of self control .... the state of freedom from attachment was spontaneous to him .... his devotion to dharma was evident in every action of his.
'Gandhi admired Raychand because of his self control and his freedom from attachment; he was like the Sthitprajna of the Gita. He admired his practice of religion because of their pragmatic and experimental nature. Raychand obviously was a man very much after Gandhi's own heart. While Raychand undoubtedly had great influence on Gandhi during a period of personal development, this seed did not fall on virgin soil. 18
Similar Stephen Hay's remarks about Raychand's influence on Gandhi are noteworthy.
'I became convinced that those (religious ideas) we can accept are found in Hinduism. Raychandbhai was responsible for bringing me to this position. The reader can thus imagine how much my respect for him must have increased. 19
Pg.132 | Gandhi & Jainism
