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three great persons that Gandhi has acknowledged as having influenced him most, the least known but most important was Raichandbhai whose contact became a sort of beacon-light for the Mahatma. It is but a logical inference that through such a valuable medium Rajchandra not only provided the spiritual tenets to India's political struggle during the Gandhi era but has continued to influence us even now.
Rajchandra was born in a middle-class family in 1868 at Vavania in Saurashtra. His father Ravijibhai was a devout Vaişnava while his mother Devabai was a devoted follower of the Jaina faith. Rajchandra was the product of such a unique combination.
Rajchandra was one of those few that are enlightened since birth. So he knew his mission and could pick it up pretty early. Rajchandra started as his father's son when one day his grandpa took him to a Vaisnava holy man Ramadas who at once placed a holy necklace (kanthi) round his neck and ordained him into Vaisnavism. But destiny had marked him to be his mother's darling, which he soon became, a devoted Jaina by birth, a śatāvadhāni with superhuman memory, a mature soul placed on the last lap of its journey to liberation.
And interestingly enough, Rajchandra never renounced the world nor did he ever join a religious order. He belonged very much to the world. He had a family and he raised a progeny. By profession, he was a partner in a jewellery shop, of course, a very honest jeweller who would dupe not and fleece not. And this is all we know about his worldly life, except of course his subsequent contact with Gandhi whom he influenced a great deal.
When Rajchandra was about seven, an incident proved to be a turning point. He had a very intimate friend named Amichand. One day Amichand died of a snake bite and as the dead body was being taken to the cremation ground, Rajchandra followed it. As the body of his dear friend was burning on the pyre, Rajchandra witnessed the tragic scene from a nearby tree. This cast a deep impression on the juvenile mind. Suddenly a veil was lifted, and, so it is said, he caught a vision of his previous birth.
Rajchandra had very little of formal schooling; but he was born enlightened. And a virtual lack of education was no handicap for him. He could now draw at ease from his accumulated treasure of the past and this explains how at an early age of about eight he could compose the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata and express it in Gujrati verse. He
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