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that before I wasted an entire lifetime trying to find happiness in the materialistic world, that I started looking somewhere else; I started looking within. This Master whom I have known for five years and who I now refer to as my Sadguru (True Guru), is whom I owe all the credit for this simple, yet significant, change in my life's direction. His name is, respectfully, Pujyashri Rakeshbhai Jhaveri.
Rakeshbhai Jhaveri (whom I now refer to as Gurudev) is a disciple of the Jain Saint, Shrimad Rajchandra. He has many qualifications that could impress anybody like a PhD, thousands of disciples across the globe, lots of knowledge, well spoken, and of course an all-white attire, but those are not the things that attracted me to Him. What attracted me to Him was his non-insistence (being an American youth this was very important!) and modern, and yet spiritual, approach to living a happy life.
In these past 5 years, I've only met Him personally a handful of times. They were mainly when He had visited the US to give lectures. Each time our conversations were very friendly and informal. I wasn't much interested in His lectures at the time since they were mainly in Gujarati. Once or twice when He visited our house and mainly because my parents insisted, I would pose some questions to Him that were of concern to me. I asked Him once, "How can I be as happy as I am when I drink (alcohol), and maintain that same state all the time?". Each time I would ask Him, He would listen and then logically give some points for me to ponder. At the end of it though, the choice was always left in my hands, which was very relieving. Little did I realize at the time that he was always hinting me to search within. I wasn't ready to give up my search for happiness in worldly matters, and am still not sure in many ways, but I now know that I have a Self Realized Guru guiding me each step of the way, and I feel very much at
ease.
Because of the mystical nature of my Guru's relationship with me, I find it difficult if someone asks me to describe my relationship now. If a relationship is all about how you "relate" to another person, then just as quickly as I change, grow, and purify myself, so does my relationship with him changes, grows, and purifies as well. The biggest leap that our relationship took was approximately 11⁄2 years ago. Gurudev had come to New Jersey in December 2008 and had
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casually mentioned that they were going to Rajasthan in January for the annual youth retreat. I was working, but I managed to take off one week to attend the retreat in India with Gurudev and approximately 700 youth who were part of the organization He has established - Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram - Dharampur.
During that retreat, I was so uplifted by the sessions and by the energetic atmosphere that I decided I could no longer work for the company I was working for, since it conflicted with my moral values now. Despite being a vegetarian, I had allowed myself to eat eggs when in baked goods, but after giving up eggs, I could not justify selling the same product in large quantity any longer. I immediately went to the business center of the resort where we were staying and wrote an email explaining the situation to my boss. Little did I know, that one small decision of attending one shibir would change my life forever. I extended my stay in India since I no longer needed to rush back to work. My cousin, her husband, and their two kids had recently moved to Ahmedabad and insisted I stay with them. During the weekdays I would go to their office (a software company) and on the weekends I would get away to either the Ashram in Dharampur (Gujarat) or Mumbai by train. During the weekends that I would be at the ashram, I would be in a serene atmosphere attending Gurudev's satsangs. When in Mumbai, I would be in the noisy and hectic metropolitan city. In both environments, Gurudev would teach us to remain detached. I was getting trained and was starting to realize that I didn't want this trip to end.
Nine months went by like this and finally I decided it was time to return "home" to the US. But this was not my final return, but just a visit. For my real home now was India. All my dreams to live in California were thrown out of the window and I decided to live in Mumbai, a city, where I could never think of living.
I've been in India for over 18 months now and Mumbai for the last 9 months and am really happy with my new life. I do miss my old friends and familiar environment, but I'm learning more and more to enjoy change, since that is the only thing constant in this world. In many ways, I'm still the same person I was before, but the difference is that my values and my goals have changed. Instead of hanging out in my spare time, I choose
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