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Shantilal M. Desai
is a pre-eminent illustration of rapid personality-growth due
inner and outer integrated approach to life. The germ of rapid personalitygrowth seems to lie in his keen desire to acquire new knowledge and his vow to accept him as his Guru, who taught him new things. There ring of honest search of discovery of new knowledge in his seeming proud it provides the primal force for rapid and integral personality growth.
His Life and Times
Very scanty recorded facts are available about Haribhadra's life. It is generally agreed that his life-span was from 757 to 827 A.D. as established by Muni Jinavijayji. His mother's name was Gangabai and his father was Sankarabhaṭṭa. He was a Brahmin by caste, was a native of Chitod or a place nearby. He was fond of learning and became a priest to the king of Chitod. There the incident of the sudden change of faith occurred as he could not understand 'Cakkiduga gatha recited by the Yakini. The meaning of the Gatha was explained to him by Jinadattasüriji. After becoming a Jain he seems to have passed his life in Rajputana and Gujarat. The changeover was not merely a change of faith but was as it were, a new birth to him. It was a spiritual rebirth and that gave a new direction to his life and thought. He was transformed totally but he retained all that was best in him and his previous thoughts and beliefs. The new impact of Jainism made him more prone to devote all his time to philosophic and religious pursuits.
The political, social and religious background of his times
at all conducive to wider outlook or integration. But as it happens often in history it is at such times alone that forces of integration come out. about this time that the great Sankarācārya walked over the length and breadth of India with his universal message of unity and integ ration. He established his principles of unity and integration background and Upanisadic basis. But the basic unity and integration of principal religions of India and almost all philosophies in India was yet to be established and preached. It was Haribhadra who was the pioneer to do such an unique task. It was he who at the time first tried to have an integrated view of all prime religions and who successfully synthesized the basic principles and view-points of the main Indian philosophies. Haribhadra may not have been as well known as the great Sankara, but he has rendered unique service to Indian Yogic and philosophical thought. He could do such a universal task only because he like Sankara had an integrated personality and had digested the basic principles of all religions and had seen the universal truth underlying them all. He had an universal
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