Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta

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

Page 37

The Life of Raichandra
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His reply was:*? "Oh, there is nothing difficult in it. It is quite sinple, just like sitting under the shadow of a tree. One who sits under the cooling shade, does not get attached to it and does not remain sitting under it. Similar is the case with worldly sojourn and its affairs." With this inward attitude, Raichandra was abie to live a simple, kind, and renounced life. Gandhi, and other seekers like him, used to visit Rajchandra with spiritual questions and in search of self koowierige. While sgaged in his business dealings, Rajchandra used to discuss with them their spiritual questions and advise them on religious matters. Being a Shatavadhani48, he could afford to do so."
Rajchandra became a profound thinker and a great teacher of the Jain philosophy ihrough his penance, scriptural studies, and self-reflections. He had many admirers and some of them wanted to follow in his footsteps. Gandhi also was greatly impressed by Rajchandra and had a deep respect for his compassion for others and all-round attitude of nonviolence. Gandhi also believed that Rajchandra had gained an inner vision through winch he could discriminate between soul and matter." Even then, Gandhi did not adopt him as his guru! because he believed that Rajchandra had not yet attained "perfect" self-realization needed for moksha and he was not yet a jivanmukta.*? Rajchandra's judgments and opinions, however, appealed to the moral sense of Gandhi and he crusted his views in vast majority of the cases, 54 Gandhi writes:"5 "Yet, I never could regard Rajchandra as a perfect man. But, of all the men I know, he appeared to me to be nearer perfection than the rest. Alas, he died all too young, when he felt that he was surely going to see Truth face-toface.' At another place, Gandhi writes:56 "I had very close relations with Rajchandra. I do not think that he followed Truth and nonviolence with greater devotion than 1, but I do believe that he far surpassed me in knowledge of the scriptures and retentiveness of memory." Gandhi also writes:37 "He (Rajchndra) had seit-knowledge and self-confidence from his childhood. I know that he was not a jivanmukta and he