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year old Shrimad Rajchandra had demonstrated his amazing power at a function in Mumbai's Faramji Cawasji Institute
An important quality of Gandhi is his capacity to introspect. When he returned from England after becoming a barrister, he suffered from egoism but which melted away after meeting Shrimad Rajchandra and which made him aware of the principles of Jainism and that was to give him inner strength which was to sustain him all through his life. Dr. Pranjivan Mehta made Gandhi acquainted with Kavi Raichandbhai (Shrimad Rajchandra) who was barely twenty-five years old at that time.
During their first meeting, Shrimad Rajchandra made a deep impression on Gandhi who thought him to be a highly knowledgeable person with sterling character. Dr. Mehta told Gandhi that Shrimad Rajchandra was a Satavadhani and wanted him to experience his amazing powers himself. Gandhi was a barrister-atlaw and Shrimad had studied uptil VII standard at a school in Vavania, a small village in Saurashtra (Gujarat State). He had no knowledge of English. He had a retentive memory and would remember the words spoken to him and would rattle them off in the same order in which they were spoken.
He would make additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions mentally and would either complete a verse in an instance or compose a poem on a given subject. He would recite about 400 words from 16 languages, including Greek, Arabic, Latin, Sanskrit, Urdu, Marathi etc, which were all jumbled up. Simultaneoulsy, he would be attending to other tasks. He would play Chaupat or cards or even chess against three persons. Gandhi commented: "A store-house of knowledge." It was an amazing spectacle for Gandhi who was awestruck by Shrimad's memory power. Gandhi noted : "It was a chastening experience for me to dilute the impact of western education." His arrogance slowly dissipated and humility bom in its place. He acquired humility which was to become a hallmark of his character.
Gandhi writes in his autobiography (page 53), "I was jealous of his powers but was not fascinated; what fascinated me was something which I realised later. It was his deep knowledge of the scriptures, his impeccable character and his capacity to introspect."
Later Shrimad was to make deep and lasting impression on Gandhi and it was indeed fortuitous for Gandhi to have met him. Since he had not many briefs at that time,
Influence of
Jainism on Mahatma Gandhi
Influence of
Jainism on Mahatma Gandhi 7
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