________________
The Self Realization
wellknown merchant community. His father's name was Ravajibhai and mother's name Devabai. His grandfather was a staunch devotee of Lord Krishna. His mother was bred up in Jaina religious traditions. In Samucchaya Vayacharya he writes :
"I was born on Sunday, Kartika Sudi Purnima (15th day of Kartika), Vikram Samvat 1924. Therefore I have completed to-day 22 years. In this apparently short span of my life, I have experienced much about the Soul, the nature and mutations of mind, the integrity of speech, the physical body, the wealth, various impressions of the variegated or multicoloured wonderful world formations of various orders, many worldly ups and downs and the causes of interminable misery and unhappiness. All these have been experienced by me in many ways. In my short life I have entertained all the thought-forms which were thought over by the all powerful saints and philosophers and by the formidable sceptics. I have thought of the universe of desire & aspiration which were discussed by the great rulers. I have also thought of the disinterestedness par excellence, an attitude of serene indifference. I have much meditated on the acquisition of immortality and of minute temporariness or transitoriness. Many similar great thoughts I have traversed in very few years of my life. I look at all of them as a seer, and I realize the unfathomable gap between my present state of knowledge and experience and the state of my being when I cherished or entertained these great and multifarious thought-systems. All these minute and big differences and gradual development of my self have been only recorded in my memory. I have never made any effort to publicise these thoughts. I felt that giving these thoughts to a wider public or sharing my experiences with them might bring good spiritual dividends but my
Jain Education International
For Privag & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
