Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta

Author(s): Satish Sharma
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad

Page 23

Introduction
surpassed those of these two thinkers... Rajchandra often said that I belong to no faction or sect, nor do I want to belong to one. All sects are limited, but overall religion has no limitations and cannot be fully described."21
Similarly, in a letter to H. S. L. Polak from Pretoria Jail in South Africa, Gandhi writes: 22
"... The more I consider of his life and his writings, the more I consider him to have been the best Indian of his times. Indeed, I put him much higher than Tolstoy in religious perception. The books I have read (by Rjchandra) have afforded me the highest solace... Both Kavi (Rajchandra) and Tolstoy have lived as they have preached. Kavi (Rajchandra), though, writes from richer experience."
Finally, Gandhi clarifies about Rajchandra as follows in his autobiography:
"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 briefless barrister then, and yet whenever I saw him he would engage me in conversation of a serious nature. Though I was then groping and could not be said to have any serious interest in religious discussion, still I found his talk of absorbing interest. I have since met many a religious leader or teacher... and I must say that no one else has ever made on me the impression that Rajchandra 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 thought. In my moment of spiritual crisis, therefore, he was my refuge. And yet in spite of this regard for him, I could not enthrone him in my heart as my guru. The throne has remained vacant and my search still continues."
Rajchandra's full name was Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta and Gandhi addressed him as "Raychandbhai or Raichandbhai" and the "Poet."24 He was the son-in-law of a famous businessman Popatlal Jagjivan Mehta and the brother