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Gandhi's Teachers : Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta
was himself conscious that he was not. But, he was fast progressing in that direction."
Rajchandra fell seriously ill toward the end of his life and Gandhi believes that he had exacted more work from his body than he should have to meet the demands of his household and businesses. Rajchandra had explained to Gandhi that the body was on a hire and the duty of each person was to make most of it and try to attain moksha as quickly as possible. For this goal, he also advised that one should forsake all attachments and bravely tackle the obstacles in the path.58 Gandhi, accordingly, wondered how did then Rajchandra took upon himself excessive responsibilities that brought upon him a severe illness? His conclusion was that Rajchandra too was temporarily overcome by spiritual ignorance (mayaillusionary energy), as explained in the Bhagvad-Gita:59 "All creatures follow their basic nature, what will then the constraint avail?" Gandhi took Rajchandra's taking on of excessive responsibilities as a sign that he was not yet a jivanmukta and that he had some subtle attachments left in him. Rajchandra had also said that it would be impossible for anyone to deceive a person of perfect spiritual knowledge and yet people occasionally cheated Rajchandra on religious or other pretexts. This was another indication for Gandhi that Rajchandra was not yet a fully self-realized person. Gandhi explains that moksha is a state of grace for the atman,the achievement of which requires ceaseless effort through many lives. A genuine vairagya is the first step of a yearning for moksha and one also had to get rid of all attachments in this very life. Gandhi explains that Rajchandra possessed the needed vairagya, a strong yearning for moksha, and freedom from attachments was spontaneous in him. He also had a happy combination of the moral life and spiritual knowledge needed for moksha. But he was not yet a jivanmukta. Gandhi felt that despite some subtle attachments left in him, Rajchandra was close to achieving the goal of moksha and that he had not observed in anyone else such a beautiful combination of moral life, spiritual yearning, practical
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