Pinnacle Of Spirituality

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Raj Saubhag Satsang Mandal

Page 38

11. Endless Compassion
OP
Poets are born, not made. One needs a sensitive heart and the power of expression to write poetry. Shrimad, whose brilliance as a student we have seen, was equally talented in the composition of verses. In his heart flowed three separate streams: the poetic, the spiritual and one of wisdom.
His compassionate heart was moved by the state of society around him. In those days, women had no rights and there was much division in society. The pain he felt was naturally expressed in poetry. The plight of the country also made him unhappy, and at a time when patriotism was almost non-existent, he composed verses full of patriotism.
While he only began learning to write at the age of seven, he had already, by the age of eight, composed about 5,000 stanzas on various subjects. When, later in life, he reviewed a poem he had written at the age of eight, he found it well composed and well structured. The poetry he wrote at the age of ten displayed the maturity and profundity of an accomplished poet. At the age of eleven he began writing for local chronicles on different subjects, for which he won several prizes.
He summarized the great Indian epics the Ramayan and the Mahabharat in verse, wrote an essay on the education of women and his poems on patriotism, social reforms, religion and other subjects appeared in periodicals such as Dharmadarpan, Subodhprakash, Vigyan Vilas and Saurashtra Darshan.
By the time he was thirteen, he had studied in depth a variety of religious texts. He then began reading philosophical works written in ancient languages of Sanskrit and Ardhamagadhi. His ability to learn and his skill in poetry were both extraordinary. He began to be known as the Kavi Raichand, “Raichand the Poet."
Shrimad's was a very compassionate and sympathetic heart. Through his mother's influence he was familiar with and fond of the detailed avoidance of injury to all living beings described in Jain scriptures such as Pratikraman Sutra. One day, when his mother asked him to help her in the kitchen by chopping vegetables, tears streamed down his cheeks, as he felt the pain of the Souls in the vegetables.