Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta

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

Page 39

The Life of Rajchandra
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discharge of duties, and devotion to dharma, “2 as he had seen in Rajchandra.63
When Rajchandra was lying on his deathbed in extreme agony, he was not mindful of his extreme pain and only eagerly awaited a vision of God.64 The admirers of Rajchandra started asserting that he was a muktapurusha") and the twentyfifth tirthankar. Gandhi tries to clarify that that such a belief was not proper and that either those who held the belief did not know Rajchandra's life or their definition of a tirthankar was different from the one commonly accepted. He advises that we may not lower the standard of truth, even for the sake of those whom we dearly love. Moksha, he explains, is a condition of supreme value and the highest state of the atman. This state is so rare and the attainment of the state needs much effort and patience through many lives. A tirthankar commands the powers of this state immediately preceeding moksha.67 One who has attained this state while still living in the body is a muktapurusha and will not suffer from attachment or bodily diseases.98 In a body untroubled by desire, there can be no disease. There can be no disease, where there is no attachment. Where there is desire, there is attachment, and while there is attachment, moksha is impossible. Gandhi, accordingly, concludes that Rajchandra had not yet attained full freedom from attachments and diseases and therefore was not a muktapurusha or a tirthankar. Such vibhuti," he says, belongs only to a muktapurusha. Gandhi, nevertheless, adds that Rajchandra had spiritual powers and divine glory in much larger measure than most ordinary folks have and that he was close to being a muktapurusha. Gandhi concludes by saying:70 "We are all worldly creatures and shall have to wander from existence to existence, whereas Rajchandra may have only one life more to live... This was no small achievement. Even so, I must say that he had not attained the supreme state, so beautifully described by him. He himself said that he had come upon the Shahara in his journey and that he had failed to cross the desert."
Rajchandra was a rare human being, a prominent Jain