The Jain 1988 07

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 54

ritualistic life of a Jain sadhu he inherited from his great Guru Atmaramji. Both seemed to believe that it was no use merely preaching religion to a samgha that was socially and psychologically not prepared to receive it. In practical economic terms, it meant first bread and butter, the wherewithal to get the same, and then religion. An understanding and a happy mind can alone absorb and live up to the tenets of Jaina philosophy and to create such a mind was the life-time work of this great Acharya.
He was born in 1870 in a religiousminded Jain family at Baroda and was known as Chhagan. At the tender age of ten, he lost his parents. This shock changed his life and he passed most of the time in meditation and study of the scriptures. He was in quest of a true guru who could help in attaining perfect spiritual bliss and self-realisation. To his luck, he once heard a spritual discourse of Shri Atmaramji Maharaj (Vijayanand Suri). He was impressed by his knowledge, personality and speech. He became the disciple of Shri Atmaramji Maharaj and became a Jain sadhu at the age of 17.
Within the first few years of his life as a monk he mastered the scriptures; got control over his mind through meditation and emerged as a scholar, a great saint and a social reformer, He got to grips with the situation and life of India at that time. It was the time of British RAJ, when values of Indian life ethical, spritual and cultural-were downgraded
THE
=Jain_
and importance was being given to physical possessions and so called luxurious ways of life. People were unhappy because of the lack of proper understanding and education. In his
Ji
JAIN ACHARYA SHREE VIJAY VALLABH SURISHWAR JI MAHARAJ
last message his guru Shri Atmaramji Maharaj told him "Vallabh, I have been instrumental in establishing Jain temples, now you help in creating educational institutions". He dedicated his life to fulfill this message of his guru and tried to see that no Jain remains uneducated or hungry, and he established schools, colleges, vidhyalays and gurukuls (hostels).
In the true tradition of a Jain sadhu, he moved on foot from place to place Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharastra and various other places. Mahavir Jain Vidhyalaya (with 7 branches at the moment) and Atmanand Jain College
21