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Raichand, Gandhi once wrote:
During my life I have tried to meet the heads of various faiths, but I must say that no one else has ever made an impression on me that Raichandbhai did. In my moments of spiritual crisis, he was my refuge.
Gandhi bracketed Raichand with Tolstoy and Ruskin as the three persons who most influenced him. In his autobiography he wrote:
Three moderns have left a deep impression on my life and captivated me, Raichandbhai by his living contact, Tolstoy by his book, "The Kingdom of God is within You" and Ruskin by his "Unto the Last'.
The Jaina religious philosophy, its theory of knowledge and the Jaina path all made a profound impression on Gandhi and moulded his actions in life. In order to appreciate these influences let us take a brief look at the Jaina principle.
In accordance with the Jaina philosophy, the universe is eternal, everlasting and uncreated without a beginning or an end. There is no creator or supreme being. The cosmic constituents are the animate and the inanimate. The animate comprise an infinite number of souls. The true nature of the soul is that of eternal bliss and beatitude. When the soul is liberated it attains its true nature. If being liberated is being divine, the divinity is inherent in all of us, in all life forms, irrespective of whether it is animal or human. In its mundane existence the soul is attached to the body by the karmic bonds that arise from its passions and emotion. We can detach our soul from these bonding passions through our own effort, not through the intervention of any external entity or Supreme Being. In fact, the closest thing to a divine entity in the Jain religion is the siddha, or liberated soul. By definition, such a divine entity is vitaraga; that is, free of all attachment and aversion. He does not meddle in the affairs of the world. He does not reward anyone with prosperity or happiness when pleased, or punish them when offended. This dual concept of the oneness of life and self-reliance for achieving salvation is the foundation of Jaina philosophy.
It was in conjunction with the Jaina philosophy that Gandhi acquired his belief that knowledge was the intrinsic property of the soul or atman. In it pristine condition the soul was pure knowledge
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